Driving a Flagship Cashless Payment Project in Japan

Officially launched on April 8, 2019, the project was taken over by a team of more than 20 members, with core personnel being developers from the Java team. The Project Manager (PM) was Mr. HungNT, with Mr. QuangVV as the sub-PM, along with nearly 20 others including developers, testers, QA, and Comtor. This is a cashless payment processing system that encourages people to use ATM cards, credit cards, e-wallets, etc., to pay for everyday expenses such as electricity, internet, cable TV, airline tickets, tour bookings, and even taxes and insurance. A key highlight of the project was the first-time application of new technologies—GCP (Google Cloud Platform) and Big Data—by the development team. 
Since GCP was a new technology, it was expected that team members would face challenges from the very beginning. The team studied GCP documentation together and conducted mutual training to get familiar with the new concepts. 
Building a simple and user-friendly payment system for Japanese users—most of whom are elderly and accustomed to using cash—was another major challenge for the developers. Not only was the programming demanding, but the testing phase was also difficult for the QC team due to delayed specs and constant layout design changes from the client. 
Although the system had to process large amounts of data, the client did not provide realistic sample data. This made data testing time-consuming. Developers wrote a tool to generate large datasets, but it was still limited and couldn't fully cover all use cases. 
Since multiple companies were involved in the project, communication and coordination among different teams were often challenging. "No pressure, no diamonds" became the motto of the entire project team. 
After nearly six months of relentless effort, the cashless payment system was officially launched in Japan in October 2019. Following long hours of continuous overtime, the team finally tasted success as the system was highly rated by the client and is now being widely used by thousands of businesses across Japan. 
When asked about memorable moments during the project, Mr. HungNT shared about a visit from three Japanese client representatives to the Hanoi office on September 24–25. The whole team had a small party to welcome and celebrate the project's success with these special guests. Although it was a short visit, it helped improve mutual understanding and significantly reduced communication barriers.

We have every reason to be proud of the team's tireless efforts and early achievements. Wishing Mr. HungNT and the entire team continued success and many more major projects together in the future!