Test Environment Management | Fundamentals & Components

What is Test Environment?

A controlled environment or infrastructure created especially for testing purposes is referred to as a test environment. Before releasing software, systems, or applications to the production environment, it offers a separate and isolated environment for testing them to assure their functionality, dependability, and performance.

This comprehensive management process encompasses tasks such as inventorying, planning, setup, configuration, monitoring, and maintenance of test environments, while also emphasizing the importance of data management, security, and communication. By following the basics of test environment management, organizations can optimize their testing efforts, enhance collaboration among teams, and deliver high-quality software products to their users.

Fundamentals of Test Environment Management:

To properly support software testing activities, test environments must be planned, created, configured, and maintained. It tries to make sure that the infrastructure and resources required to carry out testing effectively are available. The following are some basics regarding the management of the test environment:

1. Create an inventory of the required test environments based on the project's needs. This includes identifying the types of test environments needed, such as development, integration, staging, and production-like environments.

2. Define the requirements and specifications for each test environment. Consider factors such as hardware, software, operating systems, network configurations, databases, and third-party dependencies. Determine the number of environments needed, their purpose, and the desired configurations.

3. Prepare the test environments by installing and configuring the required software and hardware components. This may involve provisioning servers, setting up virtual machines, installing operating systems, configuring networks, and deploying necessary applications.

4. Establish a configuration management process to track and control changes made to the test environments. Use version control systems or configuration management tools to manage environment configurations, ensuring consistency and reproducibility.

5. Manage the test data required for testing. This includes creating and maintaining realistic and representative datasets, ensuring data privacy and security, and establishing procedures for data backup and recovery.

6. Define access controls and security measures for the test environments. Determine who has permission to access and modify the environments, and implement security protocols to protect sensitive information.

7. Monitor the test environments to ensure their availability, stability, and performance. Use monitoring tools to track resource utilization, detect bottlenecks, and identify potential issues that may affect testing activities.

8. Regularly maintain the test environments by applying updates, patches, and fixes to software and hardware components. Perform periodic health checks, performance tuning, and capacity planning to ensure optimal functioning.

9. Develop a schedule for allocating test environments to different testing activities. Coordinate and prioritize the usage of shared environments among multiple teams or projects to avoid conflicts and optimize resource utilization.

10. Establish effective communication channels to report environment-related issues, changes, and status updates. Document environment configurations, known issues, and troubleshooting procedures to facilitate knowledge sharing.

Test Environment Typical Components:

A combination of the following components is used to set up each test environment or QA environment. These are:

By considering and assembling these basic components within a test environment, organizations can create a controlled and representative environment that enables effective testing and validation of software, systems, or applications before their deployment to production environments.

Conclusion:

Test environment management is a critical aspect of software testing that involves planning, setting up, and maintaining controlled environments for conducting effective testing activities. These environments provide a safe and isolated space to evaluate the functionality, reliability, and performance of software, systems, or applications before they are deployed to production. By closely replicating the production environment, testers can identify and resolve potential issues or bugs early in the development cycle, minimizing risks and ensuring a smoother end-user experience. 

At WeTest, clients get extreme care for their test environments management whether the project is for an app or mobile games. WeTest has a strong resume when it comes to mobile game development with many big titles under its name like Riot Games, Supercell, and many more. With a commitment to becoming a global leader in third-party testing services, WeTest's automation testing services with many tools enable clients to get useful insights and deep learning about their projects to avoid any future problems after the products are released in the market.