Today, we’re talking about types of testing environments. But first, let’s establish some basic definitions.

Software testing is a process that verifies that the software works as expected in test environments. The verification is done through a set of automated or manual steps called test cases.

A test environment is a combination of hardware, software, data, and configuration that’s required to execute test cases. You have to be sure to configure the testing environments to mimic production scenarios.

There are many types of test environments. Which ones you’ll need depends on the test cases and the application under test. A thick-client desktop application serves a different need than a web application does. As a result, the test environments required for a desktop application are different than those for a web application.

This post is a complete guide on types of testing environments and how often they’re used. The post also explains how testing environments fit into the pace of modern software development practices.

1. Integration Testing Environment

The first on our list of testing environment types is the integration testing environment. 

In this type of environment, you integrate the individual software modules and then verify the behavior of the integrated system. A set of integration tests are used to check that the system behaves as specified in the requirements document. In an integration testing environment, you can integrate one or more modules of your application and verify the functional correctness.

The environment setup depends on the type of application and the components being tested. Setting up this environment usually involves ensuring the availability of the right hardware, the right software version, and the right configuration. Integration testing environments should mimic production scenarios as closely as possible. This includes the configuration and management of application servers, web servers, databases, and all the infrastructure needs of the application.

With the modern DevOps approach to software development, where continuous testing is a norm, an integration testing environment will probably be used daily or multiple times a day. Therefore, the ability to recreate the environment at will is paramount to an effective software delivery process.

2. Performance Testing Environment

Next on our list is a performance testing environment. You use this environment to determine how well a system performs against performance goals. The performance goals in question can be concurrency, throughput, response time, and stability.

Performance testing is a very broad term and usually includes volume, load, stress, and breakpoint testing. A good performance testing environment plays a crucial role in benchmarking and identifying bottlenecks in the system.

The setup of a performance testing environment can be fairly complex. It requires the careful selection and configuration of the infrastructure. You’ll run your performance tests on multiple environments with a different configuration that varies by

• Number of CPU cores,
• Size of RAM,
• Concurrent users,
• Volume of data,

You’ll then document and publish the results as system benchmarks and compare this with the performance goals of the software.

After that, in a performance testing environment, the software teams take a closer look at the system behavior and related events such as scaling and alerting. From there, they’ll carefully tune them if needed.

Performance tests are usually time-consuming and expensive. Therefore, setting up performance testing environments and running these tests for every change can be counterproductive and is usually not recommended. That’s why software teams only run these performance tests on a per-requirement basis, which could be once a month, for every major release, or whenever there are significant changes in the application.

3. Security Testing Environment

Let’s now discuss security testing environments. When working with this type of environment, security teams try to ensure that the software doesn’t have security flaws and vulnerabilities in the areas of confidentiality, integrity, authentication, authorization, and non-repudiation.

Organizations usually engage a combination of internal and external (from a different organization) security experts who specialize in identifying security vulnerabilities in software. During this process, it’s crucial to establish a thorough scope that defines exactly which systems will be targeted, which methods will be used, and when the assessment will take place.

As part of a good security testing environment setup procedure, you’ll want to establish some ground rules, such as

• Have an isolated test environment.
• Have non-disclosure agreements in place.
• Don’t leave the system in a worse state.
• Don’t touch production data.

This is especially applicable when engaging external security companies.

Different parts of security tests can happen at different frequencies and different stages of the software delivery process. A successful software team usually executes vulnerability assessments, scans, audits, and any other non-invasive tests more frequently when compared to invasive tests like penetration tests. Automating security tests that are non-invasive and running them as often as possible, perhaps alongside integration tests, helps maintain a security baseline.

On the other hand, executing advanced invasive tests requires a good understanding of the software and the potential attack surfaces. Carrying out sophisticated attacks on the software by penetration testing requires the expertise of the security specialists. This is not something that you can easily automate, and it requires a lot of effort. Therefore, you’ll run these tests less frequently.

4. Chaos Testing Environment

According to the book Chaos Engineering, “Chaos engineering is the discipline of experimenting on a system to build confidence in the system’s capability to withstand turbulent conditions in production.”

Understanding how the failures of individual parts of the system can potentially cascade and ruin the whole system is the ultimate goal of chaos testing. By using fault injection techniques, software teams build an in-depth understanding of critical dependencies of their system and how software fails.

With that definition in mind, let’s talk about the final environment on our list: the chaos testing environment.

If you have a modern web application with a microservice architecture, where different independent services make up the application, then setting up a reliable chaos testing environment is crucial. These environments must be set up in the same way as your production environments are, and they must be configured for scale and high availability.

Having an environment to test the high-availability, disaster recovery, and business continuity provisions configured in each service crucial to improving the reliability of your whole system. It’s equally important to test how the dependent services behave in these failure modes. Disaster recovery drills or game days are excellent opportunities to run these tests and identify the potential weak links in modern, large-scale applications. Software teams usually run the chaos experiments less frequently and mostly alongside the performance tests.

Other Considerations

Finally, I’d like to close out with some other considerations you should take into account:

• While there are other types of tests, such as usability testing, accessibility testing, and testing for internationalization and localization, these tests don’t need a separate testing environment. They can reuse the integration testing environment or any of the other setups.
• The number of test environments you have to manage also depends on the number of platforms that the software needs to support and be compatible with. Factors such as supported operating systems, processor architectures, and different screen sizes all come into play.
• There is, of course, no place like production, which in itself is the ultimate test environment for any application. Product teams engage in the responsible collection of user data in production. This helps product teams to collect telemetry data about how users engage with their applications. Consequently, they use practices like A/B testing and feature toggles to improve their chances of success.
• The data used in different environments also needs to be realistic. Having tools to back up and simultaneously anonymize and hide personally identifiable data can be very useful in testing scenarios.

Managing Test Environments

Test environment management is a crucial aspect of the software delivery process. Incorrect environment setup leads to inconsistent test results. This leads to friction and blame among the stakeholders, who ultimately lose confidence in the test results.

This post described the commonly used test environments and things to consider when setting up and managing them. The ability to spin up testing environments on demand is crucial to successfully managing your test environments. You can read more on this topic in our post called “Are you TEM Savvy,” which is an excellent piece full of useful tips on managing reliable and consistent test environments.

 

This post was written by Gurucharan Subramani. Gurucharan is a software engineer who likes to get .NET, Azure, and Azure DevOps to not just meet but to also dance. Some days, Guru is a dev; other days, he's ops. And he's frequently many things in between. He's a community advocate who leads the Bangalore Azure User Group and is a member of the .NET Foundation.

A test environment is a setup for the testing team where they execute test cases. This environment comprises software, hardware, and network configuration. The setup of a test environment depends on the application under test. A complete setup helps testers carry out their tasks without any system side hurdles. Finally, the setup helps improve the quality of the final product.

In this post, we’ll get to know why managing your test environment is important. After that, we’ll discuss 10 best practices for test environment management. By following these best practices, the testing team of your company can efficiently manage test data in a way that the data can be reused. The best practices will also enable your team to complete their task by following data privacy regulations and to ensure client satisfaction. So, let’s get started.

Importance of Test Environment Management

As technology evolves, requirements keep changing. For instance, with Angular dominating the UI domain, the demand for single-page applications has increased a lot. Cost, time, and quality are the most important factors to check for every business. Every firm aims for the appropriate budget and ample time before starting a project. But somehow, these two entities face the most shortage. Well, we don’t live in an ideal world, do we? Sometimes, due to time and budget constraints, the quality of the end product declines.

But budget and time shortages don’t mean that you should compromise on the testing phase. Software testing is a tricky process with the involvement of several dependencies.

Testing is a crucial activity of the software development life cycle (SDLC) and can determine a product’s fate. Therefore, the test environment has to be reliable. Do you want to disappoint customers with a product that has many critical bugs because of improper testing? No matter whether you’re a start-up or an established company, never overlook the importance of testing. For getting the highest accuracy in test results, your team needs proper test environment management.

If a team doesn’t give importance to test environment management, it results in poor handling of assets. This includes time and budget. When a company can’t handle these in the right way, quality suffers. Thus, to maintain a high quality of products and services offered, it’s essential to manage the test environment. Before getting on to the best practices, take a look at these metrics, which will help you to measure and improve your test environment.

10 Best Practices for Test Environment Management

Now that we know why managing a test environment is important, let’s get started with the 10 best practices for test environment management.

1. Begin Testing Exercise at an Early Stage in the SDLC

Even though most firms know the importance of testing early, very few successfully implement it. When teams don’t test early, it leads to bugs at a later stage. Fixing them requires more time, effort, and money. As a result, it disrupts the management of the test environment. When the development team has composed even a few lines of code, testing exercises should start. The team should also follow the shift-left approach. This involves performing testing earlier in the product’s life cycle. The process results in fewer bugs to fix in the end. Hence, it saves time and cuts down costs.

2. Demand Awareness and Management of Knowledge

When customers make a demand, a company must develop a product in a way that satisfies that demand. When team members keep client needs in mind during development, the outcomes are close to what the client expects. Thus, it’s important to use a test environment management strategy according to customer needs. Testers writing a test case should develop a knowledge base according to demands. The business analyst also needs to keep updated documents that contain the current as well as changed requirements. In this way, if there is a case of updating the test environment, it keeps other team members in line with what’s going on.

3. Conduct Iterative Tests

Most companies are adopting agile as part of their framework. Agile follows a sprint-based approach. It also involves testing in iterations. That means the entire product is divided into small phases. Each phase has its development and testing cycle. The entire process reveals bugs early, which makes fixing them easier. Iterative tests increase the flexibility of the SDLC. The client can change the scope in case the need arises without it being a burden to the budget. Since the team handles bugs at every sprint, there doesn’t end up being an overload of them at the end of the project. Thus, managing risks becomes easier.

4. Plan and Coordinate

Planning is very important while managing the test environment. Testing and development teams often don’t have separate test assets. So, test environment managers should plan schedules for both teams. They should ensure proper coordination to avoid conflicts. Sometimes, shared usage of resources can give rise to certain conflicts. For instance, if there are few iOS systems in your team to develop and test iOS apps, conflict may arise regarding which team will use the systems and when. Planning and coordination is a must to maintain transparency among teams and team members. Apart from that, proper communication with clients is important to keep them updated on their requirements. Check out this use case, which will help you to effectively plan and use your resources.

5. Reuse the Test Resources and Test Cases

Reusing test resources helps save money for a company. It frees up the firm of the need to tap new resources every time a new project begins. Even though every application is unique, many have some generic areas. That’s where the option of reusing test cases increases. Reusing test cases reduces redundancy. It eliminates the need for writing a different script each time you’re testing new features. For instance, all e-commerce stores have a shopping cart. Thus, testers can use the script for testing the “add to cart” feature of another app. It won’t matter if they’ve already used it before since the feature is the same.

6. Implement Standardization and Automation

It’s important for testers to analyze the validity of tests. But this requires a benchmark. Defining test environment standards makes it possible to set up a benchmark for running the test cases. After setting these standards, it’s time to automate. Some things that can use automation include deployment, build, and shakedown. Automation can save time, resources, and manual efforts that can be put to better use later. Configuration management becomes a lot easier when the dependency on manual testers lessens. Automated TEM tools reduce the number of test environments in a test bed. As a result, it improves test environment provisioning time. Besides this, the costs incurred are lower.

7. Use Testing Techniques According to Needs

I’m going to cite a situation that you must have come across many times. There are times when something seems impossible at first. But if you break it down into chunks, it doesn’t seem overwhelming. Taking it one step at a time makes things simple. In most cases, with this approach, you succeed. Similarly, for test environment management, first, analyze the test structure. Then break down massive loads of tasks into manageable pieces. After that, understand the steps and the needs for performing each. Figure out the test endeavors and take the necessary steps. According to the need, pick out the testing techniques and implement them. For example, you can use containers to improve your system’s security and agility.

8. Mask and Encrypt Test Data

With advancement in technology, cyberthreats have increased. Endpoint devices are usually the starting point of the majority of data breaches. Not only are they a threat to users, but they also pose great hazards to companies as well. So, companies should mask and encrypt user data. Not only that, every company should avoid using real customer data during testing. Firms should ensure data compliance with PII or GDPR standards. Some processes to ensure data compliance are ETL automation, service virtualization, and data fabrication.

9. Implement Processes According to Stakeholder Requirements and the Company’s Culture

Stakeholders are the most important component determining the success of a business. They’re the ones giving the requirements. The entire team has to work according to their needs. But it’s important that their needs are in line with the company’s culture. Sometimes companies don’t have the means to ensure the fulfillment of customer requirements. This results in an unsatisfied client, which can be fatal for a company. The testing team should have pre-configured assets before they start testing. A client doesn’t forgive any unresolved bug in the later stages. For instance, if an e-commerce app in production charges the customer twice for a transaction, it can create chaos. As a result, the reputation of the company can suffer. You can take a look at this blog to analyze and refine your company’s current capabilities.

10. Convey the Right Status of the Task

Legitimate and correct correspondence is a must to ensure a smooth flow of work. If the conveying of information goes wrong, it can cost a firm its reputation. The objective of a project should be clear to all in the beginning. Team members should share the task status with the right group of people. The timing of conveying information is also important for a fruitful task.

Suppose you need a specific set of data for executing a test case. Whenever you’re stuck with that test case, convey the blockage-related information with the concerned person. Don’t just inform your QA lead. Inform the scrum master or your QA manager as well. They’ll take care of the issue so that you can smoothly carry out your task. If you hesitate regarding whom to ask, a delay in testing will occur. Before the project starts, the entire team should have clarity about whom to contact in case of emergencies or sharing daily task statuses

What Drives Appropriate Test Environment Management?

The processes for end-to-end testing should be transparent for managing your test environment. The key factors driving smooth management include the following:

1. Resource management: Use a resource properly and assign the right task to the right person.
2. Efficient planning: Plan a successful test cycle at each sprint that results in a bug-free end product.
3. Process optimization: Adjust the entire test process in a way that the resources give their best output.
4. Test automation: Automate every repetitive task that seems to waste manual labor.

Software testing is tricky. To achieve high accuracy, setting up a test environment close to a real-life scenario is important. To set up such an environment, proper planning and management are musts. Scenarios change and test environments evolve. Thus, a test environment management strategy is vital for firms. A combination of the above practices increases productivity. At the same time, test environment management practices also reduce costs and accelerate releases

This post was written by Arnab Roy Chowdhury. Arnab is a UI developer by profession and a blogging enthusiast. He has strong expertise in the latest UI/UX trends, project methodologies, testing, and scripting.

Years ago, a company might have released a software suite and then proverbially kicked back in a chair with its feet on a desk basking in celebration.

Suffice it to say that the software world moves much faster today. It seems as though there are some companies that push out new updates every few days. And thanks to microservices architecture and the DevOps Mindset, there are many companies that are constantly updating their software or at least some feature in it.

Pumping out release after release isn’t easy. With so many moving parts and so much riding on each new update, companies need to do everything within their power to ensure that releases are well-received by users.

That starts with getting their development house in order through a process known as configuration management.

What Is Configuration Management?

Configuration management is the process in which organizations and development teams oversee new software updates to ensure they are working as designed when bugs are fixed, new features are introduced and old features are decommissioned.

Thanks to configuration management, organizations can gain full visibility into the development lifecycle and easily identify errors that may need to be fixed.

If you’re thinking about implementing configuration management, or CMDB*, at your organization, that’s great news. But like anything else, you can’t just expect configuration management to solve all of your problems on its own. You need the right approach.

What is a CMDB

A CMDB (Configuration Management Database) is a database that stores information about the IT assets and infrastructure of an organization. It is used to manage and track the configuration items (CIs) in an organization’s IT environment, including hardware, software, network devices, and other components.

A CMDB can include detailed information about the relationships between CIs, such as dependencies, dependencies, and interdependencies. This information can be used to help organizations plan changes to their IT environment, understand the impact of changes on other components, and maintain the integrity and availability of their IT services.

In addition to maintaining information about CIs, a CMDB can also be used to track service requests, incidents, problems, and changes related to the IT environment. It can help organizations improve their IT service management processes and make better decisions about their IT investments.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at seven different configuration management metrics you can track to increase the chances that your initiatives help you achieve results. Keep track of these metrics and work hard to improve them over time, and you’ll build better applications that are better received by your users.

1. Frequency of Updates

Some companies are perfectly fine with shipping updates once a quarter or even once a year. Other companies pride themselves on pumping out new updates every month, and some might aim to release even more new software packages than that.

Every software company has unique goals. It might not matter how regularly your software is updated, but it might matter how consistently it is. Your users will expect at least some rhyme and reason to the number of updates you pump out.

Keeping track of the frequency of updates metric will help you make sure you are meeting your company’s goals and satisfying customer expectations. If you’re not shipping releases as frequently as you’d like, you might want to drill deeper and find out why.

2. Release Downtime Metrics

We all know how applications should work. When they don’t work as designed, we’re unable to get things done quickly. Depending on how bad the problem gets, it’s easy to get frustrated to the point a user starts thinking about whether they should find a substitute solution.

End users depend on your software. For a business user, that might mean a platform they use to store information and communicate with colleagues. It might mean a place they store code for a developer. And for a regular customer it might be a social network they use every day to meet new people.

Whatever the case may be, the moment you are unable to meet user expectations might be the moment your users begin an exodus.

Worse than that, downtime can be prohibitively expensive. In fact, a recent Gartner report found that downtime can cost as much as $540,000 per hour.

Keeping track of how much downtime you incur (if any) while a new update is released can help you maintain positive and productive user experiences. In the event there is downtime during a new release, you can quickly identify what happened and take steps to reduce the chances it happens again.

Add it all up, and keeping tabs of this metric can help you provide better experiences while increasing profitability.

3. Average Number of Errors

In a perfect world, your developers would write flawless code every day, and each new release would ship with perfect code. But we live in the real world where people do make mistakes.

Of course, it’s in your best interest to work as hard as you can to keep those mistakes down to a minimum. By keeping track of the average number of errors in each new software release, you can identify areas in your workflow that could be improved. This may help you catch mistakes earlier in the process.

For example, you might realize that a new adding a new tool to your DevOps team’s arsenal can help your release smoother updates every time.

At the very least, tracking this metric provides an easy mechanism to determine whether your team is trending in the right direction, i.e., making fewer errors as time goes on.

4. Code Lines Per Update

The point of writing is to convey a point to your readers. Unless the author is getting paid per-word, writers should state their case in as little words as possible. The question is what day is it today? It’s not do you have any idea as to which 24-hour period we are currently in the middle of?

In the world of software development, the same maxim holds true. You don’t need 100 lines of code when a single line will do the same trick.

Keeping track of code lines per update can help you ensure that you are writing software efficiently. Depending on what your team’s workflows are like, you may be able to identify individual developers who are writing too many lines of code and have the more efficient coders give them a few pointers.

5. Rework Metrics

How many files does your team rework each month?

Developers don’t come cheap. The last thing you want to do is pay them to do the same work over and over again—whether that’s because someone did it incorrectly in the first place or because your team is struggling to communicate effectively.

Tracking rework metrics can help you make sure that the percent of rework your team does each month doesn’t increase in perpetuity. On the flipside, you may also be able to identify what you are doing that is decreasing rework. With that information on hand, you may be able to bake additional efficiencies into your development processes.

6. Frequently Changing Files

Track this metric to determine whether certain files are changing too frequently. If you find out that certain files are changing with each update, you may need to look into the issue a bit.

For example, you can determine why certain files are changing so often. Maybe it’s because developers aren’t sure of the requirements. Maybe it’s because there’s an issue with your testing and QA approach.

Whatever the case may be, this metric can help you add additional efficiencies into your development processes by reducing or eliminating duplicative work and rewriting inefficient code blocks as needed.

7. Root Causes for Late Delivery

As you optimize your release management workflows, everything should get more and more predictable.

Yet nobody can predict the future and nobody’s perfect. So things will invariably not go according to plan every now and again.

Configuration management lets you drill down into the root causes for late delivery.

Fingers crossed that you never run into any errors that slow down your releases. But in the event you do miss some deadlines, you may be able to start detecting a pattern as to why you are unable to meet them.

Armed with that information, you can begin working backward to identify what is causing delays and what you need to do to prevent that from happening in the future.

Are You Ready to Start Using Configuration Management?

Is your development team reaching its full potential and doing its best work? If not, it may be time to get started with configuration management. That way, you’ll be able to delight customers by meeting their expectations while avoiding downtime and increasing profitability.

And the best part? With the right tools in place, configuration management can largely be automated.

To learn more about how your DevOps team can integrate configuration management into their workflows to build better software more efficiently, take a look at Enov8.

This post was written by Justin Reynolds. Justin is a freelance writer who enjoys telling stories about how technology, science, and creativity can help workers be more productive. In his spare time, he likes seeing or playing live music, hiking, and traveling.

 

Further Reading

• A Brief History of Configuration Management