How ICBC Boosted Interface Testing Efficiency with a Unified Language, Framework, and Practice

In the context of China’s "14th Five-Year Plan" emphasizing rapid digital development and the push for autonomous, controllable financial infrastructure, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) began a systematic migration of personal business systems to a distributed platform, termed the “IT Architecture Transformation Project.” The bank’s massive scale, complex business, and large user base make system stability critical to public welfare.

Industry Interface Testing Status

Automation testing has evolved from simple record/replay scripts to sophisticated tools such as JMeter, SoapUI, Robot Framework, and MeterSphere. Despite these tools, many teams only achieve basic smoke and regression testing. Automation success depends not just on technology but on engineering processes, with small firms favoring quick validation via Postman, mid‑size firms adopting open‑source frameworks, and large enterprises building custom frameworks to address specific testing efficiency bottlenecks.

Problems ICBC Faces in Interface Testing

Heavy historical baggage and complex interface functions : Decades of system evolution (CB2000 → ECOS) have increased complexity and caused asset loss as personnel change, making accurate transaction validation harder.

Long‑term system migration : The multi‑step migration strategy (decoupling, function completion, business switchover) requires multiple testing cycles for each interface, dramatically increasing test workload.

Talent shortage for transformation : The migration demands expertise in both mainframe‑to‑platform technologies and deep knowledge of ICBC’s business and application architectures, yet qualified staff are scarce.

High communication cost between development and testing : Mismatched terminology between business use cases and code leads to unclear targets and repeated clarification, reducing testing efficiency.

ICBC’s Exploration and Practice

One language : Establish a unified “digital asset” format for interface test specifications, using BDD‑style structured descriptions (CMC, cache, database, communication zones) to bridge gaps among business, development, and testing, turning the specification into a shared communication tool.

One framework : Build a test framework that enables zero‑code test case creation and online execution, integrating design and execution phases, reducing entry barriers, and converting manual tests to tool‑driven tests. The framework synchronizes code changes with test cases, supports automatic assertions for new‑old interface and table comparisons, and creates a “digital ecosystem” linking code, test design, case authoring, execution, and issue flow.

One practice : Continuously refine automation goals, progressing from manual cases to executable cases to fully automated cases. Extract environment and data dependencies to convert manual steps into stable automated cases, and isolate single‑application interface tests to improve stability.

Future Outlook

The journey to higher test efficiency is ongoing. ICBC will continue leveraging digital transformation, solidifying the “one language, one framework, one practice” approach to build robust digital assets and ecosystems, expand testing services, and embed quality awareness across all development roles, thereby supporting the bank’s broader innovation initiatives.