Date:
Introduction
As the pace of technology, and with it, regulatory innovation accelerates in financial services, software testing firms face a rare strategic opportunity: to move from the periphery of compliance-driven assurance and showcase their expertise at the heart of digital experimentation. Cross-industry initiatives, calls for public consultation, sandboxes and hackathons are no longer reserved for product developers alone – they actively seek knowledgeable collaborators to bring rigour, resilience, and reliability into early-stage design. With vast development and quality assessment expertise harboured in their midst, testing teams are uniquely positioned to contribute to model validation, bias detection, test strategy and test library development, functional and non-functional testing of emerging financial infrastructures.
This paper argues why participation in industry-wide initiatives is not only feasible for testing firms (among the wide variety of industry participants) but also poses a high-return investment in visibility, capability, and market relevance. Drawing on our experience as an established independent software testing services provider, as well as academic studies and innovation program evaluations, it outlines how quality engineering teams can co-create value alongside developers and other industry professionals while advancing their own expertise, tools, and talent. Most importantly – these initiatives can empower firms to evolve from test providers to strategic innovation partners.
To engage or not to engage – that is the question
"Cross-industry cooperation" is cited among “trending topics” in the field of fintech development (alongside sustainable development, including consumer protection, and financial regulation) by the 2024 systematic mapping study of current Fintech research.1 There aren’t just plenty of opportunities to engage, but proof-of-concept-type initiatives seem to have become a norm wherever emerging technology is explored. However, every participation in an industry-wide challenge is a considerable endeavour for a private-sector firm, it is not unlike undertaking a short-term, highly intensive, client project. However, it is not, perhaps, intuitively clear why a software testing-oriented company would want to contribute to PoC initiatives, calls for public consultation or Hackathons in what is, essentially, a software development role. This is what we are here to explore. Let’s start with a basic pros and cons analysis and weigh our options.
| Cons | Pros |
|---|---|
| A testing-oriented company should prioritise deepening its expertise in testing services, rather than diluting focus by engaging in development-heavy initiatives. | However, participation enhances testing expertise (it’s a fact!) by exposing testers to real-world development challenges with previously unencountered or emerging technologies, making them better-equipped to deliver client value. Testing cannot exist in isolation from development, as it’s a process inherent to the system lifecycle. |
| Involvement in collaborative initiatives may stretch the company (or specific teams) beyond its testing niche, leading to subpar performance or unmet expectations. | However, setting up a clear distinction between development and testing, understanding the delivery quality without overstepping into the development process should be a priority for the team. |
| High-pressure events like hackathons can lead to employee burnout, especially if participation is frequent or poorly managed. | However, thoughtful planning (rotating team members, setting realistic goals, and celebrating contributions) can make participation energising rather than draining. Having on the team experienced people with a clear vision and goals helps a lot. Hackathons can also boost morale by helping foster creativity within the team. |
What we’ve been up to
Recently, the Exactpro team has taken part in a number of industry-wide calls for participation. We have submitted proposals to the Business & Technical challenges of the Swift Hackathon 2025 (with the Technical challenge proposal getting shortlisted for participation), applied (by submitting a development proposal) to the BoE’s digital pound initiative and collected expertise to submit responses to FCA’s AI Live Testing Lab and Tel Aviv Stock Exchange’s Call for public consultation on the Contemplated Upgrading of the exchange’s Clearing House Clearing & Settlement Systems.
To understand the potential impact that we are trying to impart with these activities, we need to have a deeper talk about the type of service we offer. Independent software testing that we provide to our clients – trading, clearing and settlement and banking organisations worldwide – is a deep empirical exploration of the current state of their systems via a combination of programmable tools, approaches and expertise of our team. These assets epitomise over 15 years of Exactpro’s experience in the field and support of some of the industry’s most significant transformational projects (facilitating both updates to existing systems and new/emerging technology launches).
The complexity and non-determinism of the systems we test require a fitting response – customised frameworks, skillsets, and an approach that is based on building digital twins – systems analogous to the systems being tested, represented in a different programming language and reducing the limitations we otherwise face with the original systems under test (be it access to data, availability of other upstream or downstream systems, etc.). Our ability to model complex systems can not be underestimated. Thus, to us, software testing and development of complex financial systems are highly interconnected. It is building this deep expertise and undertaking the development effort that equips us to truly be able to explore the quality of our clients’ systems. Independent software testing is not only a field where testing and development inform each other, it’s where they are welded together solid.
Surprisingly to many, software testers also contribute to and can even drive clients’ development efforts via a clear test strategy and expectation setting, as well as via comprehensive revision of the in-house quality assessment processes. Speaking from experience, software testers provide clients with the information flow helping them to get a clear picture of their system, and protocolling its behaviour description in a form of a regression test library. What’s more, some of our client engagements are solely focused on development projects and rely on our team’s development and business analysis expertise to prototype innovative solutions for payments, settlement or trading technology use cases.
Like deep-sea divers, software testers immerse themselves completely into the layers of the emerging technology. With a keen eye for viable detail – possible dangerous undercurrents or species to look out for – and a trained hand, they help surface the specification-driven, technical and business issues before they become critical and much more costly (the ISTQB CTFL syllabus2 substantiates this in chapters 3.1.2. ‘Value of Static Testing’, 3.2.1. ‘Benefits of Early and Frequent Stakeholder Feedback’ and 5.1.3. ‘Entry Criteria and Exit Criteria’).
Further on, testing teams help to navigate test strategy development, review and improve the existing documentation and/or facilitate test execution. Deep expertise in both development and testing equips testers with exploratory and error guessing skills and informs their defect descriptions to the point where they can facilitate root cause analysis. The testing teams' main goal is to provision transparent and actionable information about a system and increase the level of clarity around its current technical state – something that can only be achieved by repeatedly experiencing the entire lifecycle of the development process.
Motivations that drive our team
Whenever we decide to commit to engaging in an industry initiative, we are driven by a set of internal motivations:
Motivation to understand how ideas evolve from concept to prototype
We can observe and explore how early decisions impact system testability, scalability, and resilience. As part of the design and development process, testers can identify gaps in requirements, design flaws, or assumptions that might go unnoticed until later stages, enabling proactive test strategy formulation. During this time, the development team may be unintentionally focused on the speed (velocity) rather than quality of the deliverable.
Motivation to develop a test strategy from the ground up
There is no restriction on the ability to experiment with test strategies at the ideation or prototyping phase, rather than retrofitting them later or blindly following the existing test strategy suggested by clients. The main focus is, basically, to learn, prevent costly mistakes and communicate these (when applicable) to our clients. Our experience shows that crafting your test strategies from the start of the project and continuing to improve them as the project grows definitely leads to more robust applications.
Motivation to assess application robustness through early testing and requirements/proposals review
By applying testing expertise during cross-industry initiatives, a company can evaluate how robust an application can be when proper test strategies are implemented from the beginning. This informs whether early testing investments yield measurable quality improvements. It’s well-known that early testing exposes vulnerabilities that might be costlier to fix later (for a use case demonstrating the benefits of early testing, please consult our case study titled AI-enabled Software Testing for ARTEX MTF).
Motivation to enhance team skills and industry relevance
Almost every POC/hackathon initiative is built on cutting-edge technologies – or the desire to glean insights from them – and participation in such initiatives places testers at the forefront of innovation. Moreover, due to the dynamic nature of such initiatives, the managers, chief architects, developers and testers are exposed to agile methodologies and cross-functional collaboration, keeping the company ahead of the curve in the fast-evolving industry. Needless to mention, seeing how other companies/participating teams progress within the same initiative could also be inspiring and spark new competitive ideas within the industry. Gaining hands-on experience with emerging tools (e.g., AI-driven frameworks, cloud-native apps) also enables testing teams to learn to adapt testing practices to rapid, iterative environments, which enhances their expertise. As an example of successful adaptation of testing practices to emerging technology, see our recent case study on using the test technique historically tailored to Smart Order Routers for testing Retrieval-augmented Generative AI (RAG) systems.
Do we earn client trust through participating in industry initiatives?
The answer is not clearcut: participation in “extracurricular” activities may help elevate our credibility in the eyes of some clients, but it could also negatively impact other relationships as clients overlook our genuine desire to learn from these experiences.
However, I hope it’s now clear that there are many benefits to demonstrating testing expertise in high-pressure, innovative settings like hackathons, PoCs or other collaboratives. These settings help showcase our ability to deliver quality products under constraints, strengthening our reputation. In this context, much like in the context of our everyday work, there is value in understanding both development and testing holistically. Moreover, in the space where access to client's system data is highly limited for third-party providers, such initiatives can form the basis for case studies, the data for which would otherwise be inaccessible. These materials can, in turn, be showcased to clients, proving our ability to impact quality.
Moving a step further, we ourselves initiate Proofs of concept (PoCs). As part of our current PoC initiative, we invite banking and payments organisations to explore AI-enabled software testing.
That said, one has to admit that it’s highly important to set up such exploratory processes properly. I will now address some of the most common challenges we have encountered and provide solution options for each.
Challenges that can be encountered when engaging in industry-wide initiatives
| Challenges | Mitigation points |
|---|---|
|
Resource allocation and opportunity cost: Cross-industry initiatives demand significant time and effort, diverting resources from billable client work or core business activities, however the long term benefits are obvious (skill development, process improvement, testing strategy fine-tuning and market positioning). |
Strategic participation in high-impact events may or may not yield returns, and it’s important to prioritise events aligned with company goals (e.g., targeting specific technologies or industries) and limit participation to a dedicated innovation team to balance workloads. |
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Mismatch between testing and rapid prototyping goals: Collaborative initiatives prioritise speed and functionality over quality, often sidelining rigorous testing. Testers may struggle to integrate comprehensive strategies in time-constrained environments. However, testers can adapt by focusing on high-value testing that aligns with prototype goals. |
Delivering testing value, even in fast-paced settings, is also a good experience. To optimise the efforts involved, teams can prioritise, develop lightweight, reusable testing frameworks for rapid deployment and be educated on the benefits of minimal viable testing during prototyping. |
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Limited influence in cross-functional teams: In collaborative settings, testers may have less authority to enforce quality practices, especially if developers or stakeholders prioritise features over stability. However, by demonstrating quick wins (e.g., catching critical bugs early), testers can build credibility and influence team decisions, fostering a quality-first culture. |
It’s becoming important to train testers (among other software engineering professions) in soft skills3 – especially negotiation and storytelling – so they can advocate effectively for testing causes within diverse teams. Moreover, testers can still learn on development mistakes to help prevent those on future projects (especially on projects where clients have a third-party development team). Both aspects are very useful when communicating test processes, issues, blockers and progress updates to clients and executing the testing for client projects. |
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Uncertain ROI and scalability: The outcomes of cross-industry initiatives are unpredictable – some concepts fail, and prototypes may not scale to customer-facing environments or production. Measuring the tangible benefits of participation can be elusive, realistically speaking. However, even “failed” initiatives provide valuable insights into testing strategies, team dynamics, and technology trends, which can be applied going forward to internal and client projects. |
It’s crucial to set clear objectives for participation (e.g., validate a new tool, test a hypothesis) and document learnings systematically, to maximise knowledge accumulation and transfer. Either way, the team can learn from both the successful and failed outcomes, understand the pros and cons of the technology trends. |
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Keeping up with diverse technologies: Industry initiatives often involve novel or niche technologies, requiring testers to quickly learn and adapt. This can strain expertise, especially for a testing-focused company. However, dedicating resources to exploring the new topic/implementation/technology is likely to deepen current expertise on the company-wide level and ultimately pay off. |
New tech accelerates learning and positions the company as a versatile partner capable of handling complex projects. Strategic investment in continuous training and creating a knowledge-sharing culture to disseminate learnings from each event should become a priority in this case. |
Testing as a catalyst for FinTech Innovation
Participating in PoCs, hackathons, and other industry collaboratives as a software testing company is not a digression from our core expertise – it’s a strategic evolution. By diving into these initiatives, we gain an insider’s perspective on development, refine the skill of shaping test strategies from the ground up, and help ensure that applications are robust from the outset. While challenges like resource constraints and rapid prototyping pressures exist, they are outweighed by the opportunity to enhance our skills, build client trust, and stay ahead in a dynamic industry.
Our involvement in these high-energy, innovative settings reinforces a critical truth: quality isn’t an afterthought – it’s the foundation of every great idea. By setting out to embed testing at the heart of industry initiatives, we’re not just validating concepts, we’re defining how values such as quality and objective information can drive innovation.
If you would like to enquire about Exactpro’s AI-enabled software testing offering or discuss our participation in cross-industry collaborations in greater detail, reach out to Alyona Bulda at alyona.bulda@exactpro.com.
References
- Liu, Q., Chan, KC. & Chimhundu, R. ‘Fintech research: systematic mapping, classification, and future directions’. Financial Innovation 10, 24 (2024). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40854-023-00524-z
- Cerquozzi, R., Decoutere, W., Riverin, J.F., Hryszko, A., Klonk, M., Posthuma, M., Riou du Cosquer, E., Roman, A., Stapp, L., Ulrich, S., Zakaria, E. (2024) Certified Tester Foundation Level Syllabus (v4.0.1). International Software Testing Qualifications Board (ISTQB®). https://istqb.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/ISTQB_CTFL_Syllabus_v4.0.1….
- Araújo A.A., Kalinowski M., and Baldassarre M.T. (2025) ‘Embracing Experiential Learning: Hackathons as an Educational Strategy for Shaping Soft Skills in Software Engineering’. In Conference on Software Engineering Education and Training (CSEE&T 2025). IEEE. doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2502.07950.
By Alyona Bulda, Head of Global Exchanges, SVP, Technology, Exactpro