Agile and Regulatory Compliance

Latest Whitepapers | Resource Centre | January 24, 2012

By Nella Maugeri
Test Consultant, Planit Software Testing

ABSTRACT: Is agile feasible for a company that must adhere to regulatory compliance (in the finance / banking industry)? What are some of the main considerations?

Agile methodologies appear to be considered part of the new trend in software testing. Executives, managers, testers and other business stakeholders seem frustrated with some of the limitations, delays and inefficiencies apparently inherent with traditional SDLC models. Much of this revolves around slow time to market, fast paced industries and heavy reliance on initial requirement gathering, documentation and process formalities. Further to this, the structure, culture, knowledge and dynamics of a team become a consideration when deciding on the ability to implement an agile methodology successfully. This whitepaper will discuss some of the deliberations that may arise when contemplating the implementation of agile methodologies for a regulated industry.

Throughout this whitepaper I would like to address the following considerations for projects that rely on regulatory compliance and the effect an agile methodology may have on:

  • Documentation – New vs Existing Regulatory Requirements
  • Team Skills – the “best people”
  • Business / Industry / Regulation knowledge
  • Extraction of requirements as and when needed
  • Tooling

Documentation
Agile should not be misunderstood to mean that there is hardly any documentation needed as part of the testing process. The agile manifesto principles state that only the amount of documentation that is needed should be applicable. On compliance projects it is likely that there will be a great deal of documentation needed, particularly for new compliance applications or new compliance companies.

A brand new company / application is probably going to need a great deal of documentation initially set up – to meet audit requirements. Some of the questions that may arise could be:

  • Can this be prepared in an agile way?
  • Can a team focus on various sections that need to be determined under regulatory compliance measures and consequently be tested against business processes or applications under various iterations?
  • Where Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) software is already available or in place – could this have an impact on reducing some of the risk around not meeting compliance standards?

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