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Test environment management is one of the most ignored areas in software development. In this article, we’ll look at the basic requirements of the test environment management and explain the benefits this activity provides.

Despite spending 95% of their time in a non-production IT environment, most IT projects still appear to be confused and neglect the art of “Test Environment Management” (TEM). Such IT projects use clumsy and inefficient methods, for example, using non-integratable and/or non-scalable test management tools or even information management tools like emails and spreadsheets.  

These kinds of neglect can halt testing productivity by up to 30% yearly and adversely affect sister project teams including operations and development. Disruptions that ultimately manifest themselves in project delivery delays and unexpected cost blow-out that can be attributed to excess service, licensing, or infrastructure.

Solving the TEM Challenge

Following are some of the key activities you should implement:

  • Model your non-production and IT department: be aware of your environments
  • Capture demand of project system: use the shift-left approach for planning and coordination
  • Capture and control the demand of SDLC: test environment bookings
  • Analyze and manage IT environment contention proactively
  • Use event collaboration and environment calendaring to plan and coordinate
  • Support environments requests with service management
  • Simplify and standardize your release operations through run books
  1. Application releases
  2. Data releases
  3. Infrastructure releases
  • Embrace automation to streamline your release tasks
  • Ensure continuous improvement through centralized status reporting and accounting

All too often, organizations resort to shoehorning existing investments in an attempt to cobble together a solution. For example, trying to re-engineer test management tools or IT service management (ITSM). This approach has been tried and tested a million times before and the conclusion is nothing but extra, unfruitful work.

Benefits

By getting your test and IT environments management right, you will be able to remove a major impediment to the success of project delivery and ultimately make your end-customers and stakeholders happy by delivering high-quality solutions faster and cheaper.

Next Step

Find a solution that can fulfill all your test environment needs. Consider test management tools that are specifically built for organizations to better manage and understand their enterprise IT landscape.

Role of Test Management Tools

Anything a tester does can be categorized under the umbrella of test management and to perform these tasks efficiently, it’s important to be equipped with good test management tools. These tools serve a variety of purposes such as:

  • Simplifying bug detection
  • Integrating with testing platform-tools
  • Creating traceability metrics and test reports
  • Providing real-time reports
  • Creating a scalable environment
  • Managing the users accessing the test reports
  • Securing test data

The current age of information deals with projects following methodologies like DevOps and Agile, requiring teams to deliver quality projects in a short time. Teams need to use not only automation tools but also those tools that automate the maintenance of test results and other relevant data. 

Ray Parker

Ray Parker

Ray Parker is an entrepreneur and tech enthusiast who loves to incorporate new technologies to get more efficient outcomes. When he's not marketing his latest venture, he keeps himself busy in writing technical articles to educate peers and professionals.
Ray Parker

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