One of the most important factors that contribute to the test environmental functions is to replicate it as close to the environment of the end-user as possible.
A lot of times, the end-users can’t perform any configurations on their own as a complete product or system is brought out to them.
This means that even the test teams don’t have to perform such configurations as well.
In case any of the configurations are implicated for testing purposes, then the admins need to be identified as well in order to take responsibility. The admins that configure the development environment should also be the same people that are configuring the test environment.
And if the development team itself is taking it upon themselves to install and configure, then they need to do the same in the test environment.
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Test Data Management
TDM or test data management is an important process to manage the data which is necessary for fulfilling the needs of the automated tests with little to no human intervention. This makes TDM solution a fast and a responsible venture towards creating a required test data that fulfill its needs.
However, the same data needs to be retained in the highest quality possible because the poor quality of data is of no use for the enterprises and organizations in general.
Another pretty common yet significant requirement could be termed as the fidelity which needs it to resemble the real data from the production servers as closely as possible.
The TDM process, however, should also guarantee that the test data is made available. There’s no use to possess high quality data which is realistic yet doesn’t get to the test cases when it has to.
It should be known that the high quality data is something that is very important if we plan to have the highest quality software testing. In the presence of average quality data, mediocre results would be provided which literally nobody wants.
To solve such problems, test data management is one of the best solutions.
Why do we need to test data management?
Having a team of data management along with a systematic data management process has countless benefits for the organization as well as the customers.
TDM is an important concept and here’s why:
Cost Reduction by early debugging
The fixture of a great test data management process ensures that your automated testing process goes as per the plan. This means, your debugging process isn’t going to take a lot of time or cost a lot of money.
It increases the test data coverage
Test data management helps in more traceability of the whole test data for test cases and further to the requirements. It allows an enhanced vision of the test data coverage along with the defect patterns.
Data compliance and safeguarding
When it comes to data safety, a lot of regulations are made that need to be followed by everybody. Data masking is an important part of a strategic TDM process where data security and regulatory compliance is given the most priority.
Reducing the copies of the data
Multiple teams in a single project are allowed to make particular copes of the same production data. This could be used further and usually results in redundant copies of the same data and misusing the storage space. However, with the help of TDM, the repository is used by different teams to further use the storage space very diligently.
Data Reusability
One of the most significant features of TDM is data reusability which helps in reducing the costs of the entire process. The same data is further sorted out and archived in a particular central repository that could be used further in the future. And when the requirement for the reusable data comes arises, the developers could use the same archived data.
The trust of customers
One of the key benefits of a great TDM strategy is the availability of quality data and a great data coverage.
When such qualities are present during the entire testing phase, the bugs are known and discovered early which actually makes the entire data performance pretty efficient. The customer’s trust level in the organization increases as well when he gets great results by just adopting a TDM process.