Monetary Value Round Off -- A Legal and Business Problem

 

I read a blog post from Gaurav Khurana suggesting on round off of a number having decimals.  This is the post.  What made me curious is that number and what it meant.  It was a discount money having decimals.  Here, the number of decimals was not restricted to two.

Gaurav, said, it is a better experience if that discount amount is restricted to two decimals and rounded up.  Initially, I see, this is a fair expectation.

Here is the pic of a bill which Gaurav has shared.  I'm using it here on his permission.

I woke all of a sudden at 2:18 AM today, and I relooked into the post and that value whose decimal is not restricted.  I said myself there is something which cannot be rounded up or rounded down here and I could interpret it for a context.

Interpretation of the Value and its Meaning

1. The "Bank Discount" showed the below amount
• - 450.90999998999996
2. The amount is in Indian Rupees
3. This amount tells, it is the discount offered by the Bank on that transaction
4. On round up, it will be,
• - 450.91
5. If I use the round up value, then the "Balance Paid" amount will be,
• 4,058.18
6. If I do not use the round up value, then the "Balance Paid" amount is still,
• 4,058.18
7. If I do not use the decimal values in "Bank Discount", then Balance Paid is,
• 4,059.09
• That is, I will have to pay 0.91 rupee (91 paisa) more.
• In this case, someone is at loss.  Who?
• Business?
• Customer?
• In the context of this bill, it is, customer who is paying.
• Customer will pay 91 paisa, which is, almost one rupee more.
• Now, imagine, the profit which business makes from all its customers for not having that decimal values in the amount!
• Is this right?

The meaning and value of Balance Paid is not affected, in both cases, that is,

• When I use Bank Discount value as is with decimals.
• Or, When rounded up with two decimals.

My question is,

We should have check on decimals shown and used.  But, should we round up the number when it is of monetary significance and value?

Why I have this question?

• Refer to the below examples.
• 450.35
• On round up, it will be 450.5
• 450.55
• On round up, it will be 451

If observed, on round up, the amount discounted is in excess by 0.15 rupee, that is, 15 paisa; and, in the case-2, it is in excess by 0.5 rupee, that is, 50 paisa.

If the bank loses these paisa for each transactions of same customer and other customers, won't the bank is shelling out the money?  Is this good?

Likewise, if I have to pay 0.15 paisa and 0.50 paisa, am I not paying more?  Then, imagine the big amount that business is making by rounding up a monetary number and making its customer pay in excess.

My Thoughts on Monetary Value Round Off

1. The monetary value should not be rounded up or rounded down.  
1. But, it can have a decimals and limited to two or to what business sees manageable.
• As Gaurav said, decimal to two digits makes life easier for all is my understanding.
2. The customer need to see this monetary value.
2. The generated bill or transaction should have this detail.
3. When making a payment, the billing system, can show a round off value.
1. And, the business should decide upon, should the amount be round up or round down

May be to avoid such arguments and discussions in the billing counter, today, the bill amount will be a whole number and not a number with decimal.

Such round up instances can turn to a legal problems for the business.

I have noticed, the business offering round down on a monetary value, at times.  Also, I have noticed, certain consumer mobile apps showing rounded up number without breaking down the bill details.

Whatever, as a Test Engineer, I and you, have to create a report [ticket] for product's reference; keep the stakeholders informed of such behavior in the system by explaining the impact to business in monetary and legal aspects.

Behind the Every Test Data, There is a ?!

 

Read this blog post to have a perspective about the Test Data and Test Data Management.  The point is, if I'm not aware of a test and what does it tell me to explore, I cannot think of a Test Data.

That said, if I know what I should be evaluating as part of performance, why, when and how, this will help me to come up with a thought for identifying the tests and its test data for the same. 

The ninth question from season two of 100 Days of Skilled Testing is:

What role does data management play in performance testing, and how do you ensure the availability of suitable test data sets?

Testing and "Ensure"

We test and have tests in testing, because, there is no "sure" and "ensure" idea in software.  But, we presume on a rational basis upon, "if, these are this", in a given context when the software processes.

Now, ask yourself, how can we ensure the availability of suitable test data sets?

In my opinion, the Test Data is often misunderstood.  This is the primary problem and should be the first problem, when asked "what are the challenges in creating the test data?".

When you read the concluding lines of this blog post, you will learn why I say this.

Test Data and Immunity

In my opinion and experience in practicing the Test Engineering, I see, the Test Data should be a viral strain and it should have its variants.  When this test data is used to test [experiment, test investigate, and debug], how do the software and its ecosystem respond?

• Does the software and its ecosystem is immune to this test data?
• Does it exhibit any risks and problems?
• If yes, then, do the purpose of my testing and automation is accomplished with this test data?

This puts me back to question, what is the purpose [intent] of my test?  It drives me to derive the test data which helps me to know -- What am I supposed to learn and on priority?  With this, I get an idea for what kind of test data I should be creating knowing its pattern.

If the system is immune to Test Data and not reveling anything new in the context, I classify this pattern of test data as "Immune" to the context.

In my practice and research work in Test Engineering and Software Testing, to start, I categorize Test Data into two areas.

1. Immune
2. Not Immune

Further, I have categories, under these two, where I classify the Test Data deterministically for the context.   Get in touch if you want to learn more about this.  I'm just one ping away!

The tests should help me to evaluate for the immunity and also non-immunity; both are essential and necessity.  

The credit is to me for such classification of Test Data.  It is my research work out of my practice.

Note that, Test Data is not just the input [characters or files] entered or given to a system.  Test Data has its association to tech stacks, infrastructure, ecosystem, business workflows and people.  To craft such Test Data, one has to have the understanding of the system and its internals, and, the problem it solves by knowing how it solves.

Performance Testing and Test Data

1. What is that I'm testing as part of performance?
2. What do I want to evaluate in the name of performance?
3. What part of the system is evaluated for its performance?
• Should I evaluate this in isolation or as a wholeness of the system?
4. What domain knowledge and information I should have when testing for performance?
5. What system's architecture and internal details I should understand and be aware to test for performance?
6. Is this the first delivery?  Or, do we have this system running in the production?
• If it is first delivery,
• How will I create the test data to suit the consumers of this application?
• What are the key workflows of business that we should be evaluating for its performance?
• Do all workflows and sub-systems need the evaluation for performance, and on priority?
• How do I map the fragmentation of users and their data [with its patterns]?
• What are the infrastructure and ecosystem characteristics that should be part of the test data identified?
• Does caching have any effect if the same pattern of data is used?
• If it is a running version in production
• Can I refer to the DB to figure out the pattern for the particular workflow that I'm evaluating?
• How can I match the test data to have the production data's characteristics and attributes?
7. What is the backup strategy for the Test Data?
• How do I version control the Test Data?
• Which version of the Test Data I should be using?
8. What is the threshold I'm targeting with Test Data?
• What should be the size of the data in DB when I make the IO and RW operations?
• What should be the network capability when I make the IO and RW operations?
• What should be the hardware capability when I make the IO and RW operations?
• What should be the geographical traffic and its pattern when I make the IO and RW operations?
• More of such factors will be considered when identifying and deriving the test data.
9. What is the client error yielding Test Data that I should have for the workflow?
10. What is the server error yielding Test Data that I should have for the workflow?
11. What is the redirection yielding Test Data that I should have for the workflow?
12. What is the no-response and no-change Test Data that I should have for the workflow?

And, more.  It is simple; get in touch to discuss and know beyond the listed.

To conclude and stop here, all these questions, do not ensure or assure or make sure that I will have test data for evaluating a characteristic of performance.

• It helps me to know:
• What are the tests I should be doing?
• What kind of preparation I should be having in my practice to create the Test Data for these tests?

The, Test Data should challenge the available Testability and its limits.  If it is not doing, then, we are having a test data no doubt about it; but, it is of shallow. Shallow!?

One has to ask self, "Is this sufficient enough and effective Test Data for the system [and workflow] I'm testing?"

The, Test Data should drive the engineering team to add more layers of Testability into the system.

JSON for Software Test Engineers - 101

 

In the practice of Software Testing & Engineering, I became aware of the below:

• UI (User Interface) is not just GUI (Graphical User Interface)
• UI is an interface through which a user interacts with a system
• UI is one of the touchpoints
• Data we exchange between the two systems is also a UI
• This data can take different formats
• Text
• HTML
• Image
• Video
• Audio
• XML
• JSON
• YAML
• PDF
• custom-defined data format
• and, more

Note: Refer to the MIME types and know what type of media is supported and used in the system you are testing and automating.

Testing Through Data

When the data can be used as a UI, it also means one can do the testing and automation through data using data.  From this perspective, it is important to know the data format.

I see JSON is one of the common data formats we use to store and exchange data between two systems.  Understanding how the data is structured in JSON is important for a software test engineer to think and evaluate the testing and automation through the data.

JSON For Test Engineers - 101

I documented my understanding of JSON and how to interpret it in the gist here. This markdown file has my learning.