Evolution of Prepaid Payment Processor's Software Architecture: An Empirical Study

Prepaid cards are the payment option for consumers who want to use an electronic means of payment but do not want to tie up the payment with a credit or debit account. When a prepaid card transaction is initiated using a Point of Sale (POS) machine or an Automated Teller Machine (ATM), it travels through multiple entities for authorization. These entities include merchants, acquirers, branded networks, and payment processors. Each of the entities has its own software solution for processing its part of the transaction. In this paper we present an empirical study of the evolution of a payment processor's software architecture. We first describe a basic architecture which acts as a baseline for further evolution. Results of transaction processing on this baseline architecture are discussed to highlight different quality of service issues. This architecture is gradually evolved into subsequent architectures resolving the encountered issues.