Kozminski Techblog

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Recently, the world is constantly talking about programmers/programming, etc. and we concentrate on their work only but here comes the problem….

Why do we forget about software testers and their significant part in the quality of the software product?

So, what is software testing?

It is the process of executing a system with the intent of finding bugs and defects. In other words, the process that provides quality to the specific software product.

And as we are talking about testing here comes the other question:

What is quality? It is “the degree to which a component, system or process meets specified requirements and/or user/customer needs and expectations.” – definition by ISTQB.

There are six dimensions of quality:

• Functionality
• Usability
• Reliability
• Efficiency
• Portability
• Maintainability

The software testing process is conducted as a life cycle called STLC – Software Testing Life Cycle and executes in a systemic and planned manner to improve the quality of the product.

STLS consists of:

The four levels of testing are as follows:

There are numerous types of testing based on many classifications (based on the scope of testing, objective, the technique used, etc.)

 Such as:

• Black, White, Grey Box testing
• Functional and Non-functional testing
• Smoke, Sanity and Regression testing
• Positive and Negative testing
• Front-end and Back-end testing
• Manual and Automation testing

Many people perceive testing, quality control, and quality assurance as to the same things… but is that true?

The answer is no.

Quality control focuses on testing by executing the software with intend to identify the bug or the defect through the implementation of procedures and processes.

On the other hand, quality assurance focuses on the processes rather than the testing part of the system.

It can be said that the responsibility of quality assurance is the prevention of bugs rather than detection!

I have used many times the term bug/defect and maybe you ask yourself what is it indeed?

It is a flaw in the system that can cause a system failure and inability to perform the required function of that component. It is a deviation of the actual result from the expected one.

There are various tools with bug-tracking capabilities such as Jira, Redmine, Bugzilla used by software testers.

Here are myths vs. facts about testing:

Myth: Software quality depends on how well we test the software

Fact: Software quality depends on how well we create the software

Myth: The main objective of testing is to improve quality

Fact: The main objective of testing is to prevent risk by identifying potential problems as early as possible.

Myth: The best tester is the one who’s found most defects

Fact: The best tester is the one who finds ways to prevent defects in the first place.

Sources:

ISTQB glossary

https://www.testim.io/blog/software-testing-basics/

Software testing course Softacademy, Bulgaria

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Last several years the term “Agile” become popular not only among IT or fintech companies but also in different industries – telco (telecommunication) companies, banking, retail, many others for sure – even production. The first time when I have the chance to get acquainted with “Agile” was my 3m QA course a year ago. Since then, I have read several articles and posts about Agile and the most popular agile Methods/ Practices – Scrum and Kanban. I am sure that most of you have heard or will read/ learn in the future.

But let me tell you more about it 🙂

 Agile as a mindset, described in The Agile Manifesto in 2001 with 4 values (people over processes, results over documentation, collaboration over the contract, responsiveness over plan following) and defined by 12 principles (satisfy customer, welcome changing requirements, deliver solutions frequently, business and developers together, motivated individuals, direct conversation, progress = working solution, self-organized teams) and manifested by the unlimited number of practices (Scrum, Kanban, Lean, XP, FDD – feature-driven development, Crystal, Spotify, SAFe – scaled agile framework).

Kanban is a scheduling system, literally means “signboard” with signal cards that should trigger an action, main motto – “Stop Starting and Start Finishing!”, part of the Lean methodology that organizes processes and workflow, people are self-organized and count on gradual improvements. General practices in Kanban – visualize the workflow, Limit WIP (work in progress), Manage Flow, explicit Process policies (Definition of Done), Feedback loops (Review, Retrospective, and Daily meetings).

Scrum as a learning framework and approach to creating product/service with 3 main roles (Product Owner, Scrum Master, and Team), 5 events (Sprint, Sprint Planning, Daily Scrum, Sprint Review, Retrospective), and 3 artifacts (Product Backlog, Sprint Backlog, Product Incremental)

But among the most popular Agile methodologies is another that attracts my attention – XP – Extreme Programing and here below what interesting I discover. Before reading www.extremeprogramming.org  I only knew that there is a “parallel coding” in XP (two developers are writing code for solving one and the same issue) but it is not exactly (I missed the keyword together). These are my takeaways about XP – specific features:

• First Project in XP – started in March 1996
• Focus on customer satisfaction as every agile framework
• Deliver the software that you need now, instead to deliver everything you possibly want in the future
• Respond to changing customer requirements, even at late stage
• Managers, customers and developers are all equal partners in team
• Extract from the Rules of the XP:
  • Planning – user stories are written instead of big business requirements, project split in small releases and iterations
  • Managing – open work space and daily stand ups, move people around and cross training
  • Designing rules – simplicity, CRC (Class, Responsibilities, Collaboration) cards for design sessions
  • Coding – customer is always available, code the unit tests first, all code is paired programmed by two developers on one computer, integrate often
  • Test – all code must have unit tests.
• Values of XP – Simplicity, Communication, Feedback, Respect, Courage 
  
• Scrum vs. XP  

Sources:

Extreme Programming – A gentle introduction, Agile Manifesto, White papers for Scrum and Scrum vs Kanban 

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Is there a better time to change your daily routine than the beginning of the year? As 2022 has already started, many people around the globe are trying to improve themselves, become more productive, organized….

Have you thought about that as well?

Because there is a perfect solution for you!

Have you ever heard of Todoist? – the amazing task manager that can change your life!

Feeling overwhelmed by your workload? No need to, Todoist gives you the confidence that everything’s organized and accounted for, so you can make progress only on the things that are significant for you at this moment.

You have now a solution to get those dozens of tasks out of your head – you can create a study plan, work plan, grocery list, etc., and reduce stress and chaos in your life.

You don’t have to worry about forgetting some of your tasks. Once they are in Todoist, you don’t have to worry about that!

Moreover, you will have all your tasks in one place and even you can synchronize them on all your devices so you can have full control over them!

So, let’s see how to use todoist?

Start by clicking on the “quick add” button and creating a task. Capture all the details in a matter of seconds!

You can set a due date or a recurring due date as for example “Every Wednesday” – look – you will never forget a deadline again!

No time to do the task today? No worries – you can always reschedule…no pressure.

You can organize your tasks into projects. To ensure that your projects are neatly organized add sections and subtasks – for example: To Do, Doing, Done.

For further convenience you can add priority levels – you will then know what is important right now and what can remain in your planner for later.

Furthermore, you can share projects and tasks with your business colleagues, school/university friends or even family members.

Don’t forget that you can personalize your task views – you can use Kanban board; different labels for different projects; filters for priority levels; themes (pro plan) with 10+ colors.

Todoist is the one and only task manager where you can set productivity goals and track them using amazing visualizations – by using the feedback you will know what to improve, leading to bigger and faster progress in the future.

Finally, you can connect your email and calendar, which will help you even more with simplifying your workload.

Start using Todoist, you will feel more in control of your life for sure!

Here is a nice video of Todoist explained:

Sources:

https://todoist.com/getting-started

Reading Time: 3 minutes

We could say that the last few (2-3) years were the years of FinTech companies, right?

According to the CFTE data more than 200 FinTech companies globally are Unicorns… and many more to come. 

What makes some fintech companies successful and some of them even successful banks – called neobanks?

I will try to answer this question based on the story of the Tinkoff bank – a Russian neobank with more than 12mln customers!

The main driver for their success is the technology itself because of course, “technology first”. Speaking about the technology we have to mention – API usage, adoption of cloud, Big data, AI.  

The existing new technologies allowed the newcomers with fewer resources and experience to overcome the traditional players by renting (infrastructure) or/and outsourcing activities. This allows them to focus on brand building and maintenance of trusted relations with their customers.

But what exactly can customers expect? Let’s see the successful example of Tinkoff:

Apart from technology the successful player has to introduce something new to traditional banking. These are: fast online onboarding (including CA opening, debit card issue, and delivery, and mobile banking), E2E online lending process – without visiting physical branch and signing with Qualified electronic signature.

But something very up-to-date is the lifestyle banking that Tinkoff has pioneered – services like entertainment and travel bookings!

So, let’s see the history of Tinkoff :

2007 – first credit card

2011 – mobile banking introduction

2013 – goes public

2016 Investment banking launch

2017 The Russian Neobank introduced personalized services and lifestyle banking

Personalized services include:  Tinkoff Stories (user statistics and advertising), Voice assistant Oleg – AI enabled assistant/ personal finance adviser, Tinkoff messenger (chat) – possible by using data analytics and machine learning Tinkoff provides automated services to their customers.

Lifestyle banking with the following services – mobile network partnership with Tele2 Russia, entertainment – partnership with entertainment service providers, online travel agency – partnership with global distribution systems and travel aggregators and Super App – in 2020 introduction of Supper app ecosystem with all above features/services!

Users have more than million sessions monthly in the Supper app (mobile apps, Tinkoff stories, Tinkoff messenger…)!

Here is some data of Tinkoff:

• established in 2007
• 5.6 billion valuation on London stock Exchange as of December 2021
• around 12 mln customers (0,5 mln out of them business customers) – half of them active monthly
• profitable since the 3^rd year of operation which is very difficult (rare) in this industry

The key of success? – not just banking but lifestyle as well (entertainment, travel) on a high technological level!

Sources and additional reading:

https://tinkoffgroup.com/company-info/summary/

https://www.whitesight.net/post/tinkoff-bank-deep-dive

https://www.tinkoff.ru/eng/media/news/09122019-tinkoff-launches-first-russian-super-app-eng/

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6877488316346839040/

Reading Time: 2 minutes

In one of the posts about neobank usage (N26, Starling bank, Klarna, Revolut, Tinkoff) is stated that more than half of people (55%) in the age 22-34 old and slightly less than half (47%) of 35-49 years old use smartphones to access their mobile banking more than 5 times a week – which means that practically every day.

What are people doing so much in mobile banking? – checking their balances, ordering transfers, tracking their transaction history.

Nowadays, we have the possibility to choose from our banking or especially neobanking apps depending on our intuition and simplicity of the onboarding process and the usage of the app – i.e. number of clicks for onboarding, creating an account, order of transfer, visibility of transaction and card payment history (with accurate logos and names) and fees and commissions associated with maintenance and transactions, additional services such as forex, insurance, investments.

And here comes PFM and its functionality…

PFMs are more often finding their way into banking applications and are becoming an absolute banking standard!

So, what really is PFM?

PFM is a way of managing your personal finances.

One of the most important features of PFM are savings and budgeting. You can categorize transactions – create a grocery budget, budget for entertainment, transport, pet budget could be also nice.

Some cool features are automatic saving (by payment with a card we turn on the micro saving feature – go to saving account or even auto-invest) and multiple subaccounts maintenance – you can add accounts from multiple institutions into a single view.

Moreover, PFM allows you to visualize data such as spending trends and net worth.

The key here is Payment categorization. In e-commerce and physical POS payments are used the MCC codes but this is not enough. Some companies offer other more precise solutions for identifying the right type of transaction.

And as a result, we could see the following examples of PFM – Monzo, Revolut, Moneze.

Sources:

https://www.investopedia.com/personal-financial-management-pfm-5181311

https://www.revolut.com/en-LI

Reading Time: 3 minutes

No matter if you are a beginner, intermediate or advanced, a tennis game is full of detailed analysis. There are constant replays of close line calls, digital breakdowns of what part of the court a player favors, forehand, backhand, or serve speed measurements, and many more….

No doubt all these stats help the world’s best players to understand and ultimately improve their game. Wouldn’t it be great if everyday tennis players had access to these tools as well?

SwingVision is exactly what we need!

How does SwingVision work? Simply by using advanced artificial intelligence to track, review, analyze, and improve your tennis game.

SwingVision gives you the opportunity to track your:

• stroke type, spin type and ball speed
• 1st/2nd serves, winners and errors
• shot and serve placement, and rally length
• footwork, posture and positioning

Furthermore, you can use smart coaching, which identifies your strengths and weaknesses by measuring your shot stats. You can assess what you are doing well and identify the common issues leading to mistakes in technique, footwork, positioning, or shot selection.  

How? By session-over-session comparisons and smart insights.

From 2021, you have also automated scorekeeping, highlights on your best points, and challenge line calls in real-time!

Moreover, you can do that all using just your iPhone, iPad, or iWatch.

There are two ways to record your tennis session:

• by real-time analysis using your iOS devices
• by post-recording analysis using other devices such as GoPro/Android and then importing it into your iOS or macOS app

And leave the rest to the AI 🙂

So, how can you set up your recording?

• To maximize shot tracking accuracy it is recommended to place your device on the side of the court that has the sun behind it.
• You will also need one of the following pieces of equipment for a better and more accurate recording and best viewing angle – fence grip, fence mount or a tripod.

If you have an Apple Watch, setting it up on your iPhone is even easier. You will be able to start and end recordings, view a real-time preview of shot stats, right from your wrist!

What about the line calling feature?

Once you have started recording, you can challenge line calls from your wrist!

Simply by clicking on the challenge button in the top right corner and select the shot that you want to challenge. Once you review the bounce, you can answer by yourself whether the ball was in or out.

But if you are not able to do that on your own– you can use SwingVision’s official review option – you then have an answer whether the shot you have selected is in or out.

Additionally, SwingVision allows you to get broadcast-quality match stats and highlights without spending hours tagging and trimming your match!

How can you do that? All you have to do is track your score on your watch while your iPhone is recording the video.

Last but not least, SwingVision’s Video Review allows you to assess your form, technique, and footwork and share highlights with your coach, friends, or family.

Here is a short video on how to use SwingVision. Enjoy!

Improve your tennis game with AI!

Sources:

https://swing.tennis

https://www.wilson.com/en-us/blog/tennis/behind-scenes/get-swing-things-swingvision

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Who or What is EVA? – if you google (“EVA chatbot”) you will find: “HDFC Bank’s EVA (Electronic Virtual Assistant) is India’s first and largest Artificial Intelligence-powered banking chatbot. Eva uses the latest in AI and Natural Language Processing to understand the user query and fetch the relevant information.”

EVA is an intensively used acronym for a virtual assistant but Eva in Bulgarian – my father’s country/language – is a nice-sounding women name.

But not only…

EVA is the name of the first chatbot introduced a few years ago on the Bulgarian market by the second largest in Retail Bank – Postbank (a subsidiary of the Greek Eurobank). My short story today is about this Eva.

Bulgarian (not Indian) Chatbot EVA was launched in 2018 with a live chat feature that responds in the Facebook Messenger app. The virtual assistant is online 24/7.

In the beginning, it provided useful information for consumer loans, credit cards, and debt consolidation programs (which solve issues with customers troubled with credit exposure). Other useful information customers and non-customers could receive were about other bank products and services, bancassurance products, location of closest office and ATMs. Customers could solve issues with forgotten usernames and passwords of their online banking, PIN of their debit or credit cards, and many other significant issues.

Now after 3 years from launch, the bot is well-trained, and its specialty is mortgage loans. “She” can share with you information about search and selection of real estate, mortgage financing, loan parameters, and required documents for the deal – all that only by applying online.

Needless to say, the EVA Postbank app is compatible with Android and iOS smartphones and can be downloaded free of charge from Google Play and the App Store. 

Eva speaks Bulgarian and can chat only. Unpopular languages like Bulgarian at the beginning are the challenge for voice recognition programs and especially for speaking and pronouncing by the “machine”.

My investigation shows as well that:

• The largest Bulgarian bank in retail DSK Bank (subsidiary of the largest Hungarian bank – OTP) is about to introduce its chatbot in Telegram application as well. After chat and live assistant usually comes Voice assistant, it is matter of time only. 

• BNP Paribas has also launched the EVA chatbot. The purpose of it is to support customers in the purchasing processes.

• UniCredit in Czech Republic and Slovakia has deployed AI in its recruitment process via UniCredit chatbot. This is a smart recruiter that interviews candidates for the first time and provides valuable data. The unique here is that the UniCredit Bot works with collected data, measures how candidates fit a position, their approach to work, even their logical thinking.

Not only but especially during the last two years customers are intensively looking for contact with their banks and wherever they are, they expect to have the bank on their phones – formal contact is covered by their mobile apps and informal – exactly by chatbot solution.

At the end of this story, it still makes me wonder when speaking about chatbots what is the right form – “Who is Eva?” or “What is Eva? “

What do you think?

Sources:

https://sirma.com/stories/eva-chatbot-for-postbank.html

https://www.postbank.bg/Individualni-klienti/EVA

https://www.unicreditgroup.eu/en/one-unicredit/clients/2021/sep/introducing-unicredit-chatbot-an-innovation-in-recruitment.html

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Have you ever been in a situation where you felt swamped by the overload of your loans? But at the same time, you still had creditworthiness and that strong desire and need to buy something exceptional?

The model “Buy Now Pay Later” (BNPL) is exactly what you search for. It is a new way of payment that gains popularity in the fast-paced world we live in nowadays. This mean of payment allows rescheduling of the payment in few instalments, without any additional costs such as commissions, fees, interest rate or other taxes.

As an example, for such transaction let’s examine the situation where customers want to buy goods for EUR 400, and they are given the possibility to choose the model BNPL. Considering that, customers pay EUR 100 at the moment of purchase and the remaining 300 EUR in a period of 1-3 months.

Currently the method is mostly used by on-line stores, however that doesn’t mean that the off-line merchants could not implement it.

Millions of buyers now employ BNPL service to partially finance their purchases by using different options. This type of financing is called POS loans (point-of-sales loans) and represents 2,1 % from the global e-commerce transaction volume in 2020 – around USD 100bln (according to Worldpay – a payment processing firm)

The most recognized companies in this type of service are – Klarna, Affirm and Afterpay.

As a prosperous business with a huge potential, many big companies are entering the market as well:

• PayPal has launched its own product and is challenging the Asian market by acquiring Japanese firm Paidy (in USD 2,7bln deal).
• Amazon and Apple are partnering with Affirm (US based company).
• Square (American FinTech leading company) is about to buy AfterPay (Australian firm).
• Chase and American Express has started offering BNPL solutions.

The concept may seem quite up to date but it isn’t entirely new – instalment plans have been around for many years. Good examples for such are instalment schemes incorporated in credit cards. Cardholders have the possibility to choose 3,6,9,12 months with IR or with 0% IR usually on online/mobile banking app or by Contact center calls. Moreover, some banks offer these schemes on their physical POS devices. In U.S. this form of old schemes is known as “layaway”.

So, how does this work in practice?

Buy now Pay later are not exactly the same. Each company has its own conditions but general the service looks like as it follows:

• Buyer makes a purchase at a participating retailer and choose the buy now pay later at check out.
• After instant (after some seconds) approval the buyer make a down payment of 25 % of total purchase amount.
• The remaining due amount is paid in several interest-free instalments for three or four months – this repayment could be done with bank transfer, by debiting buyer’s current account, debit card or credit card automatically. 

The research among customers shows that the model BNPL makes the purchase more appealing due to two significant reasons – on the one hand, the possibility for rescheduling of the payment in time and on the other hand, the flexibility the goods to be tested before being fully paid. Another obvious advantage for the buyer is the possibility to purchase more expensive goods in some short-term plans even with 0% IR.

This service leads to higher purchase amounts and more closed deals which motivates the retailer to agree to the condition of the BNPL companies to deduct some amounts from the paid by customers instalments. Moreover, BNPL companies generate income on late payment fees and interest on long-term repayment plans

BNBL companies insist that their service is a much better alternative to standard purchase with credit cards. There are other opinions that by this people are spending more than they can afford and risk to get into uncontrolled and enormous debt.

What factors explain the popularity of the service lately?

As we live in a COVID-19 pandemic plenty of traditional off-line (brick-and-mortal) retailers were forced to introduce on-line solutions, thus have the chance to introduce the existing or newly appeared functionalities, including BNPL.

According to the report of Worldpay, expectations for BNPL transaction share is to double for the next 3 years and become around 4, 2% from total e-commerce turn-over.  As shoppers prefer a BNPL fintech solutions the credit cards providers are taking steps to ensure that they are not missing the opportunity. Visa – the largest card payment company is eager to work with fintech companies as well (signed a global brand deal with Klarna).

Sources:

• https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cnbc.com/amp/2021/09/21/how-buy-now-pay-later-became-a-100-billion-industry.html

• https://www.investopedia.com/buy-now-pay-later-5182291

• https://techcrunch.com/2021/10/28/everyone-loves-bnpl/

• https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertfarrington/2021/08/17/the-dangerous-rise-of-buy-now-pay-later-offers/?sh=7a247fb22d14