Software Testing Environment (Part 1)

What is Test Environment?

Test environment is a type of setup in which software, hardware and network configuration are combined to perform a testing of any specific application. In this environment setup testing team is involved for executing test cases. Test environment is basically a replica of Production environment to identify the Bugs or Defects in the Application Under Test (AUT) in earlier stage before going the application live.
Following points must be kept in mind, when you setting up the test environment:

• Basically, it is the combo of hardware and software devices which are needed at the time of perform testing.
• In this environment setup, your network must be in working state because if software and hardware are working fine but network is not enable or stuck then team face lots of issues.
• When Test environment is not properly set due to any reason then ruins all of the test cases and efforts to perform testing.
• All of the required resources must be available to setup the test environment, if any member of QA team or any other resource was missed, all of the efforts are wasting.
• Test environment must be set with all the requirements of the software or application.
• All test cases must be executed according to the environment setup.

Required Parameters to setup the Test Environment:

Following parameters are needed to setup the test environment:

• System and applications Your systems and application or software must be in running condition to perform better testing.
• Test Data To run the application or software, test data must be available according to the requirements.
• Test Cases All test cases must be ready according to the given requirements with positive and negative approaches and all should be executed in your created testing environment.
• Hardware (If required) Hardware must be available if it is required, like if a software needs a printer to print the invoice.
• Configured network Stable network is the backbone of any testing environment. Without stable or running network, your team would be fail
• Documentation All Documents must be placed with application to verify that all requirements will have been completed or not.
• Database server Database should be running state and store data of all iterations.
• Browser Different browsers available for perform “Cross-Browser Testing” to verify the browser compatibility issues.
• Testing team Testing team should be available at the time of testing and all members should aware with their responsibilities and will do their work according to the assignment. Without testing team, test environment setup will be fail.

Process of Setting up the Test Environment:

There are many things or objects are involved in the process of test environment setup:

• Human Resource: Following human resources are involved in the test environment setup:
  • System Admins
  • Developers
  • Testers
  • End Users (sometimes client or other end users are involved in test environment setup to give the best quality)
• Setup the Server: Every application is not tested on local machines or local servers. Application or software should be deployed on particular server for testing. Server deployment ensures that how data sent and receive, how much time required to proceeds a particular request, etc.
• Network Setup: Network must be setup at the time of testing, that’s why in test environment setup network configuration is must with following:
  • LAN setup
  • Wifi setup
  • Private network configuration
• Test PC Setup: For testing the web applications you must setup the different browsers for different testers. For desktop applications you must set different operating systems to verify the behavior of the application. All software must be installed for running the application under test (AUT).
  For example;
  Visual studio, Windows, Linux, etc.
• Bug Reporting Tool: Bug reporting must be installed in the PC in which application will be test
• Test Data: Create test data for testing the app. The common approach for create test data to copy the production data into testing environment to identify the issues of production without corrupting the production data.
  Normally, developers and testers are using their own environment for creating test data and modify according to their own needs and requirements. Developers and testers environments contains different data which helps to get flows more clear and also help in verifying the performance of the software or application.

Learn more about Imperium's Power App Services. We hope this information was useful, and we look forward to sharing more insights into the Power Platform world.

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