MKB Bank was the fifth largest bank in Hungary around 2020, before it merged with Budapest Bank and Takarékbank in 2022, making it the second largest bank in the country. The bank, which has a significant market presence, provides general commercial banking through its innovative branch network and e-channels.
In 2019, MKB Bank entrusted the expert team of ProofIT to completing the performance testing process of the AFR (Instant Payment System), that is about to be introduced.
After detailed negotiations with MKB Bank, due to the constant change in scope, the performance testing project of the Instant Payment System finally consisted of the following stages and tasks:
The project was carried out by our team of experts experienced in performance testing. ProofIT professionals have already implemented several successful performance measurement projects in the banking and fintech sectors, as well as in the energy and transport industries, and in public administration. At MKB Bank performance measurement, our team came up with a completely new approach, with which the transaction process spanning numerous system components could be measured and evaluated either point-by-point or in parts.
During the project measuring the performance of the AFR system, for a year and a half, our experts carried out measurements almost every day, several times a day, even continuously over whole days, on weekdays and weekends, so they performed more than a thousand tests per simulation, and the number of modeled transactions exceeded 50 million.
In the case of MKB Bank AFR system performance testing project, our expert team had to solve many difficulties before and during the process. Although it seemed that only a single business transaction had to be tested, it was actually a much more complex testing process.
In some stages of the project, other elements and parts of the system were always available, so it was necessary to test and load the system with different messages at different entry and exit points. Even in the case of the examination of the final, fully integrated system, we implemented separate, integrated monitoring within the individual system elements, with 28 individual measurement points.
During the simulation phase of the project, it happened several times that due to
problems or improvements of individual elements, the system had to be simulated at different entry points (started with a different type of message) so that the operation would appear to be the same.
After the development of the tested system reached a working state, it was necessary to face the fact that further developments and optimizations are still necessary to achieve the performance required by law. Tuning this was a lot of work on the bank’s side - just like with other financial institutions. We helped by separating: which subsystems are the most critical and which points have the most problems.
During the performance testing process, most of the problems - as is usually the case with similar projects - were caused by the coordination of the IT systems and the teams involved in the project, as well as the creation and integrated management of individual measurement points.
During the AFR system performance testing project, the biggest challenge was to build a measurement point resolution system that can be used to determine exactly how long each step of the process takes and which system component processing slows down the process, especially under high load. In this way, it was possible to achieve justice between the teams delivering and managing the different subsystems.
At the end of the performance testing project for MKB Bank, our prepared team was able to draw the conclusion that even a seemingly small task can develop into a particularly resource- and time-consuming project, if the needs constantly change during the project and the legal rules are re-evaluated.
It also increases the size of the project if it is necessary to take over tasks from other systems during the project, or if the basic operation changes, even at the architectural level. Such and similar situations occurred during performance measurement of the AFR system. Therefore, our team had to be ready for all eventualities and also had to manage the changes caused by the unforeseen increase in the size of the project.
We successfully concluded the project measuring the performance of the MKB Bank Instant Payment System. On the one hand, in accordance with the legal requirements of the Hungarian National Bank, it was possible to reduce the processing time of the transaction below the specified level.
On the other hand, as a sort of necessary supporting element, we created a load test control and monitoring support tool, the Orchestrator. This was the predecessor of PeACE, which has since become a product, our performance testing and evaluation platform supported by automation.
Based on the experience gained during the project and the emerging needs, the functionality of the support tool Orchestrator (the later PeACE) was continuously developed and expanded during the performance measurement projects, and provided the basis for the development of the revised PeACE.
Also as a result of the AFR project, we created a Messaging Simulator, which can simulate the messaging of various components in large corporate/banking environments, even with their unavailability and resource limitations. We are able to play the role of a 1-1 system component communicating via MQ channels, so that integrated functional and performance tests can be performed even if a given system is not functional in an environment.
If you have any further questions, please contact us with confidence at business@proofit.tech or +442036084425. Our expert team can help your complex and critical or urgent performance testing process.
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