You need to continually add functionality. To keep ahead of the curve, Nasdaq has changed even more radically in the last decade than the information industry has itself. One change involved hosting the network. You just have to have in place the process and procedures to make sure the changes you make are bulletproof. At Nasdaq, all changes from software fixes to advances in network technology are thus tested and tested and then tested again.
Clients are never part of the software testing process.
We test 19 browsers to make sure we run on all the things we're supposed to. And when programs do finally make it to user machines, they are tested extensively during off-hours before they actually operate in the real world. That is what happened with Nasdaq's Y2K upgrades. We come in on a designated weekend, starting on a Friday, night and have traders drive the system all day Saturday and all day Sunday. Md. Regulations didn't require it, Hickey says.