Insurance domain knowledge for testers
In life there are many unforeseen incidents that we hardly imagine. We learn incidents like untimely death, accident, fire in shops or house, illness and hospitalization due to sudden health emergencies that took place with some of our relatives or neighbors, we usually ignore such events, blame the victim for not cautious about the incidence.
We should think seriously about the incidence and raise a question, WHAT if this happens with me or my loved one. The thought will not let you sleep in the night… You will start worrying, but wait! There is a solution to all the worries. We can protect ourselves and our family’s health, property, and belongings by taking Insurance for health, property, car, and residence.
A very appealing quote from Lou Holtz says –“Life is ten percent what happens to you and ninety percent how you respond to it.”
In order to safeguard our health, property, our loved ones in our absence, planned travel, hard-earned savings, vehicle, and expensive belongings from theft or destruction, we should pay the premium, a price that is to be paid to get protected by insurance.
We do come across emergencies and situations like illness, accidents, theft, and damages due to natural calamities. There are various factors such as age-group policyholder belongs to, a lifestyle he is maintaining for living, habits like smoking, drinking, medical condition such as blood pressure or a heart condition, the locality in which policyholder has his residence and office or place of work, odds of a claim and conditions agreed by the insurer and insured, Finally greater the risk covered, higher is the premium amount.
IRDA (Insurance Regulatory and development authority of India) is a regulatory body in India that set, promote, monitor and enforce integrity, fair dealings between insurance companies and policyholders, protect the interest and fair treatment of policyholders, ensures prevention of fraud and malpractices and grievances and speedy settlement of genuine claims. There are many major public and private insurance providers in India. It is an individual’s choice to understand what is covered in the insurance and what is required to be covered by insurance, what are conditions for claims to get covered, and more importantly what are restrictions that prevent claims to get processed.
Major Insurance companies in India offer major two types of insurance, Life Insurance and General Insurance,
Life Insurance Corporation of India, Oriental Insurance, New India Assurance, National Insurance, United India Insurance are the public sector, whereas HDFC standard, Max New York Life, Om Kotak Mahindra, Birla Sun, Tata AIG, SBI Life, ING Vysya, Metlife, Allianz Bajaj. Non-Life insurance policy providers are called general insurance which includes, Health, Motor, Travel, and Home. ICICI Lombard, Star Health Insurance, Tata AIG, IFFCO Tokio, Cholamandalam are few private general insurance providers operating in India.
An individual has to provide all the mandatory information about his health condition, medical history, lifestyle, habits that are prone to deteriorate health such as smoking and drinking in case of health insurance. Book value of automobile, model, year of purchase, and type of coverage desired for Motor insurance, current market value, build-up area, and any ongoing hypothecation with a bank.
What is Insurance
Insurance is a protection or risk management against any unforeseen events such as theft, accidents, illness, damages of properties, due to loss of life in the form of sum total of the amount by paying the premium for the coverage and claim in case of incident or after maturity.
A person who purchases insurance is known as a policyholder or insured, company that provides insurance is known as an insurer, the document that lists all the conditions and details about the insurance is known as a contract or insurance policy. If the insured experiences financial loss due to adverse circumstances, he will submit the claim for the sum insured amount. The claim is analyzed for its genuineness by the claims adjuster; the insurer settles the claim by reimbursement of the amount.
Types of Insurance
Life Insurance will ensure payment of a lump-sum amount, on the death of an insured policyholder to his beneficiaries, in exchange for the premium being paid for a prolonged period, usually 15 to 20 years. There are various types of life insurance.
Term Life Insurance is financial protection provided by an insurer for a specific time period, such as 10 to 20 years, for paying higher premiums that in case of whole life insurance. You get the entire amount with interest accrued for the period after maturity.
Whole Life Insurance is financial protection for beneficiaries’ future financial needs after the death of an insured.
Retirement Plans are financial planning after an insured gets retired from work or earnings. There will be a regular sum amount equivalent to that of the salary in order to sustain his expenses and maintain his dignity during his old age.
General insurance is non-life related insurance that comprises of health, travel, vehicle, and property insurances.
Health Insurance covers all medical expenses of an insured in case he undergoes the treatment of illness in order to improve his health. Health insurance covers sum amount based on claim insured makes to get his medical expenses reimbursed. Acceptance and settlement of claim depend on the premium amount insured has paid based on his age group, medical condition, lifestyle, habits, and benefits he has claimed while purchasing insurance policy.
Travel Insurance covers any expenses encountered in case of disruption of travel due to delays in travel, loss of baggage during transit, or any other circumstances that resulted in troubles during travel. During international travel, due to uncertainty involved in travel time, delays, medical emergencies, or loss or exchange of baggage becomes common incidents. It is advised to have travel insurance as medical insurances are way too expensive in foreign countries.
Automobile Insurance covers the entire claim in case of road accidents and damage to vehicle and drivers both insured as well as a party due to which accident has taken place,
- Third-party insurance which covers or protects claims that involve death and damage to the third party involved due to the accident by the insured vehicle, heavy irreparable damages to the insured.
- Comprehensive insurance plan protects an insured from vandalism, theft, damages due to natural calamities like tree fall or cyclone, fire, flood, as well as third-party liabilities. It is advisable to take comprehensive insurance for the vehicle.
Home Insurance covers damages due to fire, theft, rain, and thunderstorm to the residence or offices purchased from the hard-earned money of insured.
Commercial Insurance covers the insured’s business and place of work from vandalism, employee unrest, and economic uncertainty. Premium paid and sum total claim under this insurance depend on the type of occupation, the risk involved, competition, capital involved in business venture etc.
Mobile Insurance In the digital era, every small, as well as essential detail from a missed call from a potential customer, confidential contact numbers, and the family pictures, important documents to mobile applications involving banking, online purchases, and mobile payments, are saved in mobile phones. Mobile phones have been costlier than laptops or desktop computers depending on their storage capacity, technology involved and features offerings. Mobile insurance covers theft, damage due to collapse, data loss, and cost involved in recovery of data and replacement of new mobile instrument in case of total damage.
Workflow of Insurance
The policyholder who has been insured for the policy, applies for the claim, after receipt of a claim, the insurer company ask the policyholder to provide a supporting document. After the required documents are sent, the claim is assessed by a team of insurance experts, the claim either get rejected or document explaining the reason will be sent to the insured. Claim if approved, then the amount of claim will be reimbursed in the policy holder’s account, and will be notified to the policyholder.
How to test Insurance applications
The insurance application is the most complex integrated application comprising of various systems working independently and at point of handover will work seamlessly. Software Testers should be completely aware of Insurance workflow as displayed above; The software should have a policy quote system that calculates premium based on the conditions and scenarios, type of insurance taken etc. Underwriting module is an independent module where complex business rules, underwriting quality, rating efficiency, verifying medical, and driving history for any anomalies. Policy admin system needs to understand policy workflow/life cycle, document management, coverage changes, premium due date alerts and policy lapse processing, cancellation and renewals of policies, modification of customer’s records. Finally Claim admin system needs an understanding of claims life cycle, how claims are assessed, the transaction involved in claim processing, processing of policy surrender and maturity, Payout set-up.
Conclusion
In Life, there are many unforeseen events or incidents that we hardly imagine to have occurred with us. In order to protect and secure our loved one’s future in case of policy holder’s death, Or after treatment for an illness at the hospital insurer will reimburse the expenses incurred by the policyholder. The insurance application work with various complex systems, which should be understood thoroughly by software testers in order to test and identify any defects.
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