How does a test environment affect testing outcomes?

What is a test environment?

Think of a test environment as an exact copy of your live environment. But instead of being used by real users, the test environment will be used by software testers to rigorously test your software to ensure it’s working as expected before the software is rolled to production.

A test environment comprises a virtual setup of software, hardware, network, and data sets configured to support test execution.

This may include devices, browsers, databases, operating systems, automation frameworks, network protocols, data streaming over the cloud, etc.

Did you know?

A test bed can also be classified as a test environment. The major difference here is that a test bed depends on the information (test data) needed for specific tests to work.

The Importance of Test Environment in Software Testing

Due to the increasing demand and supply in the software industry, whether web-based, mobile app, or standalone, providing the best possible user experience has become the top priority for development teams, resulting in a standardized and rigorous test process to be in place for any software development organization.

Delivering inadequately tested, buggy, and glitchy software would adversely impact an organization’s reputation, causing their respective customers to seek to migrate to other competitors in the business, which may cause a huge revenue and reputational loss.

Performing test execution extensively in a production-cloned test environment covering all software features will help cope with these circumstances and deliver a sustainable solution.

Key Elements required in setting up a Test Environment

There are several elements required when setting up a test environment. Some of these include:

The software to be tested
The OS, server, and database
The test data and configuration
Test automation tools
A Business Requirement Specification to verify the developed software against functional and non-functional requirements

Key Software Veracity Factors for Testers

In addition to setting up a test environment, there are several software veracity factors that a tester should consider. Some of these can include:

Multi-browser/device compatibility
Performance under poor network conditions
Responsiveness to cater to a blend of screen resolutions
Compliance with data protection standards
Capability to handle concurrent users

In addition, when testers evaluate software hosted in a test environment, they must substantiate that the software is assessed against the same set of browsers, gadgets, and operating systems used by the target audience.

Types of Test Environments

Here are several types of test environments that testers can leverage to test software:

Performance: In the real world, how the software behaves in reaction to actual usage.
System Integration: Testers ensure all software modules (code, third-party apps, client and server apps, and shared databases) can co-interact to fulfill client needs.
User Acceptance: Testers collaborate with the end users to use the software and provide feedback to ensure client needs are fulfilled.
Security: This environment assists in verifying any software’s security mechanisms to safeguard sensitive customer data from hackers, malicious programs, viruses, malware, etc. Testers must also execute tests to validate the authentication and validation capabilities of the software.
Chaos: Also known as stress testing, chaos testing is used to minimize unexpected downtime and sudden crashes.
End-to-end: Once all the software modules are integrated, alpha testing will validate the end-to-end functionality of the software. This helps ensure the application features align with business requirements and user expectations.
Beta: Used at the final stage of QA to prevent unpredictable bugs that could show up due to a gap in test requirements and planning. Helps prevent causing large-scale user dissatisfaction.

Test Environment Affected Testing Outcomes

The test environment you select can significantly impact the outcome of your tests. For instance:

Configuration Parity with Production Environment

The mirroring/cloning process of the production environment should be monitored meticulously to ensure there are no discrepancies between these environments, as this could lead to overlooked bugs and performance issues.

For example, differences in server configurations/configuration files, database versions, or operating system patches could have a direct impact on the software to behave differently in production than it did during testing in a testing environment.

Fortifying configuration parity would unfold the environment-specific issues in advance, preventing rollbacks and unnecessary costly fixes post-deployment.

Data Quality and Volume Data

Data coverage and volume data can be classified as the essence of software testing.

The quality and volume of data being used in testing will have a direct impact on the validity of the test results. Similarly, it is significant to have real-world data that accurately represents the diversity and volume expected in the production environment.

Synthetic data can be used, but it must be meticulously crafted to replicate the characteristics of the production data. Test outcomes can be distorted by insufficient or atypical data, which can result in false positives or undetected defects.

Hardware and Network Conditions

The hardware and network conditions of the test environment are pivotal in ascertaining the realism of the testing process.

Imagine if the test environment runs on outdated or less powerful hardware. This may not reveal performance bottlenecks that could occur in the production environment.

Similarly, network issues such as bandwidth limitations, latency, and packet loss should be replicated precisely. By using tools that simulate these conditions, it is possible to identify potential performance issues and ensure the application performs well under expected user conditions.

Test Environment Isolation

Shared environments can introduce variables that could pose a challenge and would be hard to control, such as concurrent user load from other projects or unexpected changes made by other teams.

A testing environment that is dedicated and isolated ensures that test results are only due to the conditions and configurations established by the testing process.

So, it’s important to keep the test environment isolated as it’s crucial to prevent testing from interfering with other operations and vice versa.

Environmental Stability and Consistency

The stability and consistency of the test environment are pivotal for reproducible and reliable testing outcomes. An environment that is prone to continual change or instability could lead to discrepant test results, making it challenging to rule out the root causes of the issues.

Environment stability can be maintained by using automated configuration management tools such as Ansible or Puppet to guarantee consistent setups and assist in quick environment recreation.

Scalability and Resource Allocation

Insufficient resources in a test environment could lead to throttled performance and misbehavior under peak conditions. To resolve this, scalable resource allocation is being used widely across the software industry today to handle varying test loads, especially for performance and load testing.

Cloud-based environments that can scale on demand are used heavily across organizations to handle the necessary load, providing accurate and meaningful test results.

Security, Compliance Security, and Compliance Requirements

Since a test environment is cloned from production, data encryption, access controls, and regulatory standards are usually mirrored into the test environment to avoid vulnerabilities and non-compliance issues that lead to notable risks in production. So, we should keep them monitored very closely to ensure there won’t be any breaches of the organizational security protocols.

Concluding Thoughts

The test environment is a critical antecedent of testing outcomes in software development. Following the principles and procedures described above, development teams can achieve more reliable and actionable test results.

As a tester, there are best practices and standards to follow to ensure a productive test environment, such as:

Setting clear goals
Using automation to set it up
Having standardized configurations
Making sure security is tight
Doing regular maintenance checks
Having a plan for how changes should be handled

A robust and lean test environment not only enhances the accuracy of testing outcomes but also contributes remarkably to the overall quality and success of the software product.