Why is the IT Test Environment Management strategy necessary?
You cannot release any software product without testing it thoroughly. Testing is one of the most essential parts of the software development process. Some of the most popular testing which all organizations focus on are unit testing and acceptance testing. However, one particular type of testing that most organizations fail to do is practical system testing in which all parts are put together to check their interactions.
Most of the time, the main reason organizations fail to do so is the lack of an IT test environment. Just having an IT test environment is not enough, you also need to have a superlative IT test environment management strategy to manage all IT environments thoroughly and develop interactive environments for different teams to communicate and allocate resources freely.
Why do we lack good testing environments?
There are primarily two reasons why it is difficult for organizations to establish good testing environments:
The first objective of any organization is to develop high-quality and the right solution for users. In addition to that, organizations strive hard to balance the cost of development and the cost of operations. With such goals, it is very difficult to achieve cost minimisation.
The second reason is that it is not easy to create and maintain environments as it takes a lot of time and effort. When you have multiple environments, the coordination can cost you a little more.
How to address this issue?
The traditional way is to establish one or multiple test environments which are smaller versions of production. However, it is not an effective solution, but we do it due to many reasons.
There is a new way we can choose. Here, we will create a production environment and run the tests. Developers will automate the system in a manner that an environment can be created with a button click to execute the test suite.
This is the most effective way compared to the traditional approach we have discussed. However, there are some issues we need to address to achieve this goal.
How to create better testing environments?
First and foremost thing is to get all the tools necessary for test environment management. There are many such tools available in the market. Also, you need to understand how to use those tools to achieve objectives. Identify all types of capabilities you want while setting up an environment and have tools to support that.
What Makes for a Good Testing Environment?
Though there are many tools that can help you to manage your test environments, you might not be able to control these tools and components. Here, a lean and carefully designed IT test environment management strategy can help you to wrangle all these tools and components and manage their use and deployment.
Which components will you need for good test environment management?
Testability
Nowadays, you cannot find software that was not tested thoroughly. It has become a part of the software development process. No matter which testing methodologies you use, one thing is certain: there will be tests.
When you develop a system infrastructure, you also need to ensure that the infrastructure is also testable before it is deployed. It means, the test environment must be testable.
Configuration Management
For automated releases, it is important to have good configuration management. It will help to ensure that all environments are consistent and regular once they are configured and coded.
Release Management
Release management is also as important as production release. To get insights about what to test, you need to know about features and fixes contained in a release. Here, you can do it by integrating change management systems, source control tools and release process.
Networks
You cannot miss network configuration as it will allow us to not customise all deployed environments. Different networks must be configured to ensure minimal customization.
Load and Volume Testing
Testing load and performance of software, you will need a transaction volume similar to production. It is easy to do in an ordinary web application, but very difficult for any IoT device. You need to plan your IT test environment management strategy in advance to address this concern.
Conclusion
The IT test environment management strategy is a must for all modern IT organizations as it allows proper allocation of resources and smooth communication between different teams to have the best quality software product with timely delivery.