Agile Testing
What is Kanban? Cards, Boards, Core Principles and Practices
What is Kanban? Kanban is a very popular framework for development in the agile software...
A testing environment is a setup of software and hardware for the testing teams to execute test cases. In other words, it supports test execution with hardware, software and network configured.
Test bed or test environment is configured as per the need of the Application Under Test. On a few occasion, test bed could be the combination of the test environment and the test data it operates.
Setting up a right test environment ensures software testing success. Any flaws in this process may lead to extra cost and time to the client.
In this tutorial, you will learn-
For the test environment, a key area to set up includes
Tests are limited to what can be tested and what not should be tested.
Following people are involved in test environment setup
The test environment requires setting up of various number of distinct areas like,
Setup of Test Server
Every test may not be executed on a local machine. It may need establishing a test server, which can support applications.
For example, Fedora set up for PHP, Java-based applications with or without mail servers, cron set up, Java-based applications, etc.
Network
Network set up as per the test requirement. It includes,
It ensures that the congestion that occurs during testing doesn't affect other members. (Developers, designers, content writers, etc.)
Test PC setup
For web testing, you may need to set up different browsers for different testers. For desktop applications, you need various types of OS for different testers PCs.
For example, windows phone app testing may require
Bug Reporting
Bug reporting tools should be provided to testers.
Creating Test Data for the Test Environment
Many companies use a separate test environment to test the software product. The common approach used is to copy production data to test. This helps the tester, to detect the same issues as a live production server, without corrupting the production data.
The approach for copying production data to test data includes,
Testers or developers can copy this to their individual test environment. They can modify it as per their requirement.
Privacy is the main issue in copy production data. To overcome privacy issues you should look into obfuscated and anonymized test data.
For Anonymization of data two approaches can be used,
Also, if you are using production data, you need to be smart about how to source data. Querying the database using SQL script is an effective approach.
Test Environment Management deals with the maintenance and upkeep of the test bed.
List of activities by the Test environment management function include,
1 | Check whether required equipment for testing is available? | If this is not the case, analyze the supply time! |
Check whether peripheral equipment is available? | Such as scanners, special printers, handhelds, etc. | |
2 | Are the needed applications specified? | An application such as excel, word, drawings, etc. |
For the new software does the test environment exist for the organization? | Has the organization experience with use and maintenance of the software? | |
3 | Check whether the standard test data sets are available? | With the regression test set, consider the Defect administration to collect test data. |
Do agreements with the test data owners about the test data exist? | Consider functional maintenance. | |
4 | Check whether a single point of contact exists for test environment maintenance? | If no, prepare a list of all possible members involved in keeping the test environment running. It should include their contact information as well. |
Does the agreement reached about the readiness and quality of the test environment? | For instance, acceptance criteria, maintenance requirements, etc. Also, check whether other/extra quality attributes for environments are there in agreement. | |
Do all members involved in the maintenance process are known? |
Besides these, there are a few more questions to answer before setting up the test environment.
Ineffective planning for resource usage can affect the actual output. Also, it may lead to conflict between teams.
It is possible that a Test environment is located geographically apart. In such a case, the testing team has to rely on the support team for various test assets. (Software, hardware, and other issues).
Sometimes test set up gets too elaborated in cases of Integration Testing.
If the testing environment is used by development & testing team simultaneously, test results will be corrupted.
Certain test requires complex test environment configuration. It may pose a challenge to the test team.
A Test Bed in Software Testing is a software development environment. It allows developers to test their modules without affecting the live production servers. Test bed is not only confined to developers but also used by testers. It is referred to as a test environment for rigorous and transparent testing of new technologies.
Summary:
What is Kanban? Kanban is a very popular framework for development in the agile software...
What is Test Plan? A Test Plan is defined as a document which outlines the scope, objective, method...
What is Manual Testing? Manual testing is testing of the software where tests are executed...
What is Localization Testing? Localization testing is the software testing process for checking...
Following is the step by step process to install LoadRunner Community Edition(Free version). Vugen comes...
Before we learn about protocol testing, let's understand: What is Protocol? When a computer...