Software Testing Environment - Why Do We Need It?

Development can only release software for public usage after thoroughly testing it. Especially with so much competition, users have multiple apps and websites providing the products and services they want. 

Therefore, if you release inadequately tested software with bugs and glitches, users will not think twice before choosing other, better options. To ensure users' trust and loyalty, you need comprehensive testing covering all features of your software.

However, to conduct such tests, you would need an accurately configured software testing environment. A test environment, as you might already know, is a virtual environment where software tests are conducted. 

It replicates real-world scenarios to help organizations check whether their software is running as intended. Testing environments are a crucial part of the software testing processes. Therefore, this blog will explore software testing environments. 

What are they? How do they work? Why should you care about them? By reading this blog to the end, you will get answers to all your questions.

Importance of software testing environment

Software has made our professional and personal lives much easier and more efficient. From the time we wake up to when we go to sleep, countless applications are designed to help us with even the most basic tasks we perform throughout the day. 

The importance of software in our lives is immeasurable. Therefore, if you are planning to design and build your software, you must also understand the importance of testing environment.

To build successful software, just development is not enough; you must thoroughly test the software to ensure it provides the best possible user experience. Testers use the software test environment to test new software changes, updates, and features, ensuring they work properly. 

Further, a software testing environment can provide precise feedback on the quality and behavior of the software. By exactly copying the production environment, this software testing environment can help you ensure the products are stable and usable.

Moving on the next section will explore the various types of testing environments that are used by organizations to test their software. So keep reading.

Different types of testing environments

Before diving into the software testing environment, let's first become familiar with the various types of environments generally used in an SLDC.

Unit testing environment

These types of software testing environments are used by software engineers to verify that their work is operating and performing as desired. Here, they can test individual source code modules and ensure their accuracy.

System integration environment

A system integration environment is used to verify that all software components and microservices can communicate with each other and function as a single unit without malfunctioning. Therefore, this type of software testing environment specifically brings together various software modules to test them as a group.

Quality assurance environment

As the name suggests, quality assurance testing environments ensure that the software meets the end user's expectations. This type of software testing environment verifies that the software can meet all the necessary specifications and requirements. Additionally, it ensures that the software proforma is at a satisfactory level for users.

Security testing environments

A security testing environment assesses whether your software can withstand the barrage of cyber threats. This type of test environment is used in software testing to examine the underlying code to ensure it is impervious to the latest cyber threats.

Performance testing environments

Performance testing environments focus on measuring how well software responds to various user interactions. These types of software testing environments can be very useful for e-commerce applications to ensure the optimal end-user experience.

Chaos testing environments

A chaos testing environment also called the stress testing environment, checks your software’s overall resiliency by simulating different types of failure. This software testing environment is quite useful for identifying potential system weaknesses and understanding what kind of impact a specific failure will have on your software.

Regression testing environments

Testers use regression testing environments to ensure that changes made to the software positively impact its overall performance. They generally use this software testing environment to ensure that any bug fixes do not affect the software's performance.

Alpha testing environments

This testing environment in software testing is specially used after integration to ensure performance and quality. The main goal of this software testing environment is to find and fix issues before releasing the software for beta testing.

Beta testing environments

Beta testing environments are used after alpha testing has been completed. This test involves releasing software externally to users for further feedback before full release. The goal here is to obtain real-world feedback before fully reading the software into a production environment.

User acceptance environment

This software testing environment is used at the very end of the testing process. Here, the testers will check if the software meets the main business requirements before moving on to the production environment.

Now that you have become aware of the various software testing environments, let’s also take a brief glance into best practices to set up a test environment.

Test environment best practices

The following are some test environment best practices that you can follow to set up the software testing environment.

• Software requirements: It is good practice to recognise the software testing environment's requirements carefully. In addition, you should also make sure that all the software that is already available is compatible with the testing environment.
• Hardware requirements: Another important aspect of setting up a software testing environment includes listing all the required components. Additionally, it's very important to test all your hardware installations before setting up the test environment.
• Tools: Aside from the hardware and software requirements, you should also pay attention to the automation tools and their configurations. Further, you should also ensure that all necessary totals for debugging, defect reporting, etc are available.
• Availability of test data: Lastly, it's very important to check the availability of the test data. Before setting up the software testing environment, you should ensure whether the test data is available in production or needs to be created.

Following these practices while setting up your software testing environment can be very beneficial. However, setting up the test environment is not enough, you also need to manage it well to drive optimum results. The next section will discuss this in detail, so keep reading.

Importance of test environment management

Implementing the right test environment management strategy helps in developing a stable and usable environment that consists of all the necessary software, hardware, databases, and networking components to allow the execution of test scenarios and bug detection. 

It supports running the testing cycles smoothly. However, the high investment and the low returns are creating a roadblock to the adoption of test environment management practices. Test environment management challenges have made organizations worried. 

However, some software test environment practices can ease these challenges and deliver faster results. Here are some best practices you include in your test environment management strategy:

Build trust with full transparency around the software testing environments

To manage your test environments effectively, ensure everyone knows what can be tested and where. Therefore, you must establish a single source of truth for your environment and deployments. Further, you should make it accessible to everyone in your organization.

Share reliable environment location across teams

Knowing the current status of your software testing environments is one thing, but knowing what will happen in the future is another. Therefore, you should share your release, deployment, and outage plans with the stakeholders as well. Booking a software testing environment for optimal resource utilization helps you avoid unnecessary conflicts.

Avoid manual updates by integrating Test environment management tools

When a piece of information is updated manually, there is a high chance that it is not up-to-date. Therefore, you must integrate your test environment management tools to ensure that your software testing environment inventory is always up-to-date. This will also help you build trust with your stakeholders.

Provision your software testing environment in a reputable way using virtualization

Provisioning your test environments allows you to avoid scheduling conflicts, speed up the testing cycle, and simply report. Therefore, do not wait; enable provision and test environments instances simultaneously. 

Virtualization is a great option, especially with tools like Docker and Kuerentes, where you can take a snapshot and easily replicate your entire end-to-end software testing environment. However, before investing, an ROI analysis should be performed first.

Implement knowledge management, monitor tasks and incidents effectively

A centralized test environmental management ensures that all the required information is readily available to both the stakeholders and the end users. This information could include software testing environment schedules, release plans, recovery procedures, incidents, solution documents, and status reports.

Review your test environment management performance regularly with all the relevant KPIs

Periodically reviewing helps keep your software testing environment as realistic and precise as possible. After each significant test cycle, carefully evaluate what is working and what’s not. Additionally also check for resources that are under or over-utilized, etc. 

In the end, make necessary changes as to the requirements and booking of the testing team. Overall test environment management is a very complex process that requires the managers to thoroughly plan and coordinate every stage.

However, with the help of automation and test environment management tools, we can simplify the process and make it more efficient.

How AppSierra’s software testing services can help you?

If you are looking for a reliable and cost-effective way to test your software, then AppSierra is the right choice. At AppSierra, you can experience the best software development services and software testing services. 

Our experts can help make your products successful regardless of size, complexity, and industry. In addition, we can also help you set up a scalable and reliable software testing environment to ensure all your business requirements are met. Here is why you should hire us:

• Skilled and experienced testers
• Effective software testing environments
• Client-centric testing approach
• Timely delivery and ongoing support

Conclusion

Software testing environment are an efficient and safe space to conduct all your experiments. There are necessary tools to help you ensure the usability and reliability of your software. Therefore, having a scalable test environment aligned to your specific business needs is very important to achieving success in software development.