Fast payment system or the impossible is possible
In just 3 months, we launched a translation service on the Fast Payment System (SBP), while other participating banks worked on the project for more than six months. How did we do it? We talk about our experience and the strength of SCRUM, matrix management and corporate culture.
SBP service for instantly and inexpensive money transfer between customers of different banks by phone number. The pilot project of the PPS Association Fintech (AFL), the Central Bank and the National Payment Card System (NSPK) began to be prepared in April 2018, several pilot banks became members of the association.
At the end of July 2018, Promsvyazbank received an invitation from the AFL to participate in the project to launch the Fast Payment System, and joined the initiative only after the appearance of resources - at the end of October. Therefore, it so happened that when all the other banks have already passed certification testing, we just started developing. However, this did not prevent us, by January 28, 2019, together with other pilot participants, to launch the SBP for a limited number of users. And on February 28, the fast payment service became available to all bank customers.
')
It turns out that in three months we have done the whole amount of work, on which others took more than half a year. Colleagues from other banks did not believe that we would go on time, and they can be understood.
Joining the service included a huge amount of work. First of all, this is the development of a new service: setting up and debugging connections to the API NSPK, interaction with the Central Bank (new UM formats for sending and receiving messages), UX research of the client path, setting up a new operation in the Internet and mobile bank, encryption, using a certain type SKZI (Signature or "Amber"). In parallel with this, it was necessary to carry out coordination with internal services, such as Rosfinmonitoring, risks, the legal department, the operations department and others. All the improvements to the user interface and the client path were necessarily coordinated with the NPCS.
One of the most difficult moments was working with coding, namely encryption. I had to understand the intricacies of the Signature work and ensure the smooth signing of documents. It was also not easy to reduce the processing time of payments by the bank in order to meet the three-second lag before the timeout on request from the NSPK. In fact, it turned out a system that works in real time.
When the development was completed, it was necessary to conduct certification testing with securities and NSPK. Then - sign the legal documents related to the accession to the Rules of the SBP, the change of conditions under the contract of cor. accounts at the Central Bank, receiving test protocols from the NBTS and the Central Bank. And a dozen more unobtrusive, but important little things: the appointment of security officers, obtaining combat security keys for certificates, preparation of tariffs, preparation for releases, clearing bugs.
Why did we do everything to get in the first wave? There were three reasons.
The first is leadership prospects, which are opened thanks to the system of fast payments. In such a situation it is better not to catch up, but to run ahead of everyone and keep up with the industry leaders.
The second is business benefits. Now when calculating through the RCC, the cost of ruble payments ranges from 8 to 18 rubles. Under the SBP, until the end of 2019, payments on the correspondent account will be free of charge, and from January 1, 2020 there will be a maximum of 3 rubles. The benefits of card payments are even more substantial. The average cost of P2P transfers through payment systems is about 0.42% of the amount, here the use of SPB is very beneficial for the bank, and therefore for customers.
The third reason is the opportunity to improve the life of the bank's customers, to allow making payments using the simplest payment identifier - the phone number. This is only 7 digits, plus the number is always at hand in the contact list on the smartphone. Increasing customer loyalty is a good reason to accelerate.
From the very beginning of the project, everyone liked the idea of launching a new service, but there were also concerns, since there were no answers to some questions related to accounting, risks, new technology, lack of servers, etc. At a meeting of the retail business committee, where all divisions were present On which the further coordination of the project depended, we told why participation in the SBP is so important and what benefits it will bring to the bank. We were heard, supported, and the project ran.
The team at the start was assembled, as it seemed to us, with all the necessary competencies to make the project as a whole. However, in the development process, we realized that there was not enough competences and we had to attract additional resources in order to have time to launch together with other banks project participants. The core of the project was a very small team, which included 3 representatives from the business, three software development specialists New Athena (technologist, developer and tester) and one product development team: front programmers (iOS, Android and web), two back-programmers (one did the crypto service and the enrollment operation, another service and the write-off operation), designer, analyst, tester, SCRUM master and Product-owner.
The product development team worked on two-week sprints, plus meetings were held every day, at which, based on what could not be done, further plans were adjusted. The biweekly surveys could be attended by any interested staff, including our top management. Basically, in order to share the experience, your view, give feedback. To solve the difficulties arising during the project, their involvement was not required.
Everyone to whom we contacted the bank: legal service, risks, accounting, SIB - understood that this was an important task, and went forward. From divisions with which we had to coordinate our actions in the process, we received timely feedback to make adjustments to the process. Promsvyazbank employees proved to be a well-coordinated team.
The most important thing is that we did not postpone the bureaucracy to the last moment, everything went in parallel. We had a roadmap for all the coordination tasks, the whole team participated in their refinement and resolution. Everyone said what tasks need to be solved first of all so that the next stage starts. A reamer from the reverse was done, and everyone understood exactly what he should do next.
In the classical bureaucratic system as: I sent the document for approval, threw the ball to the other side, and that’s not your responsibility, when and how they answer. We have not. The man threw the ball - the responsibility is still on him. And he will call once again, write, do everything to make the process go. You need to communicate, once again speak out loud about your needs, and everything will be done as needed and in the right time.
Not all tasks were in the competence of the product team. As often happens in large credit institutions and in the implementation of large projects in the process involved a lot of units. Only the efforts of one SCRUM-team to solve the problem was impossible in such a short time. We have paralleled the processes of related departments (finalization of tariffs, development of a crypto-service, software New Athena, refinement of interaction with the Central Bank on correspondent accounts, rules, etc.) and the product team (development of new operations in the Internet and mobile bank, development of service, etc. ).
It was not easy for us, the ability to negotiate within the entire project team became the main driving force and not to have heated debates about ideology and project methodology. It was impossible to work in isolation, since all the questions went in parallel, we were looking for a compromise.
For example, a business is working on tariffs, bringing them to developers. Those estimate the costs of implementing the logic and offer options, due to which it would be possible to significantly reduce development time. A business takes their ideas into development and offers another pricing option that requires less time for coding. The team was ranked first in the list of priorities; everything was adjusted to them.
That is, in total, we had deadlines fixed, the project was managed through a small feedback loop, sprints were made for 2 weeks, feedback was received and changes were made quickly. This allowed the maximum to drop all unnecessary and run the project.
The ability of a business team to work with an IT team has become one of our main secrets. Yes, in order to meet the deadline, we had to work hard. In the active phase, the guys worked 10 hours a day, in the last days before release, some would go out on weekends. Adrenaline and excitement going wild.
And so, on January 28, we went out in a prod on a limited number of clients, worked out all the technical errors that we managed to catch. The process was hard, as it was testing transfers between banks, and sometimes either from the other side something fell off, or there were problems with ours. Nevertheless, by February 28 we came running in full combat readiness. We are one of four banks that launched the service in full for all customers in all channels.
Now the service of quick payments by phone number is available to all Promsvyazbank customers. We have previously implemented transfers within the bank by phone number. And as a matter of fact, we added a new branch to the interface, a choice, to transfer to a PSB client or a client of another bank by phone number. A limit of 150 thousand rubles for one transfer has now been established. Until May 31, these transfers are free of charge for accounts and debit cards (for credit cards - 4.9% of the amount + 390 rubles). We want to study cash flows and understand what pricing to apply. But it will definitely be cheaper than the existing P2P tariffs. Progress in this direction does not stand still.
SBP service for instantly and inexpensive money transfer between customers of different banks by phone number. The pilot project of the PPS Association Fintech (AFL), the Central Bank and the National Payment Card System (NSPK) began to be prepared in April 2018, several pilot banks became members of the association.
At the end of July 2018, Promsvyazbank received an invitation from the AFL to participate in the project to launch the Fast Payment System, and joined the initiative only after the appearance of resources - at the end of October. Therefore, it so happened that when all the other banks have already passed certification testing, we just started developing. However, this did not prevent us, by January 28, 2019, together with other pilot participants, to launch the SBP for a limited number of users. And on February 28, the fast payment service became available to all bank customers.
')
It turns out that in three months we have done the whole amount of work, on which others took more than half a year. Colleagues from other banks did not believe that we would go on time, and they can be understood.
Mountain of tasks
Joining the service included a huge amount of work. First of all, this is the development of a new service: setting up and debugging connections to the API NSPK, interaction with the Central Bank (new UM formats for sending and receiving messages), UX research of the client path, setting up a new operation in the Internet and mobile bank, encryption, using a certain type SKZI (Signature or "Amber"). In parallel with this, it was necessary to carry out coordination with internal services, such as Rosfinmonitoring, risks, the legal department, the operations department and others. All the improvements to the user interface and the client path were necessarily coordinated with the NPCS.
One of the most difficult moments was working with coding, namely encryption. I had to understand the intricacies of the Signature work and ensure the smooth signing of documents. It was also not easy to reduce the processing time of payments by the bank in order to meet the three-second lag before the timeout on request from the NSPK. In fact, it turned out a system that works in real time.
When the development was completed, it was necessary to conduct certification testing with securities and NSPK. Then - sign the legal documents related to the accession to the Rules of the SBP, the change of conditions under the contract of cor. accounts at the Central Bank, receiving test protocols from the NBTS and the Central Bank. And a dozen more unobtrusive, but important little things: the appointment of security officers, obtaining combat security keys for certificates, preparation of tariffs, preparation for releases, clearing bugs.
Three reasons to be in time
Why did we do everything to get in the first wave? There were three reasons.
The first is leadership prospects, which are opened thanks to the system of fast payments. In such a situation it is better not to catch up, but to run ahead of everyone and keep up with the industry leaders.
The second is business benefits. Now when calculating through the RCC, the cost of ruble payments ranges from 8 to 18 rubles. Under the SBP, until the end of 2019, payments on the correspondent account will be free of charge, and from January 1, 2020 there will be a maximum of 3 rubles. The benefits of card payments are even more substantial. The average cost of P2P transfers through payment systems is about 0.42% of the amount, here the use of SPB is very beneficial for the bank, and therefore for customers.
The third reason is the opportunity to improve the life of the bank's customers, to allow making payments using the simplest payment identifier - the phone number. This is only 7 digits, plus the number is always at hand in the contact list on the smartphone. Increasing customer loyalty is a good reason to accelerate.
From the very beginning of the project, everyone liked the idea of launching a new service, but there were also concerns, since there were no answers to some questions related to accounting, risks, new technology, lack of servers, etc. At a meeting of the retail business committee, where all divisions were present On which the further coordination of the project depended, we told why participation in the SBP is so important and what benefits it will bring to the bank. We were heard, supported, and the project ran.
Teamwork
The team at the start was assembled, as it seemed to us, with all the necessary competencies to make the project as a whole. However, in the development process, we realized that there was not enough competences and we had to attract additional resources in order to have time to launch together with other banks project participants. The core of the project was a very small team, which included 3 representatives from the business, three software development specialists New Athena (technologist, developer and tester) and one product development team: front programmers (iOS, Android and web), two back-programmers (one did the crypto service and the enrollment operation, another service and the write-off operation), designer, analyst, tester, SCRUM master and Product-owner.
The product development team worked on two-week sprints, plus meetings were held every day, at which, based on what could not be done, further plans were adjusted. The biweekly surveys could be attended by any interested staff, including our top management. Basically, in order to share the experience, your view, give feedback. To solve the difficulties arising during the project, their involvement was not required.
Everyone to whom we contacted the bank: legal service, risks, accounting, SIB - understood that this was an important task, and went forward. From divisions with which we had to coordinate our actions in the process, we received timely feedback to make adjustments to the process. Promsvyazbank employees proved to be a well-coordinated team.
Interaction with departments
The most important thing is that we did not postpone the bureaucracy to the last moment, everything went in parallel. We had a roadmap for all the coordination tasks, the whole team participated in their refinement and resolution. Everyone said what tasks need to be solved first of all so that the next stage starts. A reamer from the reverse was done, and everyone understood exactly what he should do next.
In the classical bureaucratic system as: I sent the document for approval, threw the ball to the other side, and that’s not your responsibility, when and how they answer. We have not. The man threw the ball - the responsibility is still on him. And he will call once again, write, do everything to make the process go. You need to communicate, once again speak out loud about your needs, and everything will be done as needed and in the right time.
Project management
Not all tasks were in the competence of the product team. As often happens in large credit institutions and in the implementation of large projects in the process involved a lot of units. Only the efforts of one SCRUM-team to solve the problem was impossible in such a short time. We have paralleled the processes of related departments (finalization of tariffs, development of a crypto-service, software New Athena, refinement of interaction with the Central Bank on correspondent accounts, rules, etc.) and the product team (development of new operations in the Internet and mobile bank, development of service, etc. ).
It was not easy for us, the ability to negotiate within the entire project team became the main driving force and not to have heated debates about ideology and project methodology. It was impossible to work in isolation, since all the questions went in parallel, we were looking for a compromise.
For example, a business is working on tariffs, bringing them to developers. Those estimate the costs of implementing the logic and offer options, due to which it would be possible to significantly reduce development time. A business takes their ideas into development and offers another pricing option that requires less time for coding. The team was ranked first in the list of priorities; everything was adjusted to them.
That is, in total, we had deadlines fixed, the project was managed through a small feedback loop, sprints were made for 2 weeks, feedback was received and changes were made quickly. This allowed the maximum to drop all unnecessary and run the project.
The ability of a business team to work with an IT team has become one of our main secrets. Yes, in order to meet the deadline, we had to work hard. In the active phase, the guys worked 10 hours a day, in the last days before release, some would go out on weekends. Adrenaline and excitement going wild.
And so, on January 28, we went out in a prod on a limited number of clients, worked out all the technical errors that we managed to catch. The process was hard, as it was testing transfers between banks, and sometimes either from the other side something fell off, or there were problems with ours. Nevertheless, by February 28 we came running in full combat readiness. We are one of four banks that launched the service in full for all customers in all channels.
SBP now
Now the service of quick payments by phone number is available to all Promsvyazbank customers. We have previously implemented transfers within the bank by phone number. And as a matter of fact, we added a new branch to the interface, a choice, to transfer to a PSB client or a client of another bank by phone number. A limit of 150 thousand rubles for one transfer has now been established. Until May 31, these transfers are free of charge for accounts and debit cards (for credit cards - 4.9% of the amount + 390 rubles). We want to study cash flows and understand what pricing to apply. But it will definitely be cheaper than the existing P2P tariffs. Progress in this direction does not stand still.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/445772/
All Articles