The concept of software testing is no longer in the back seat. In fact, it works in tandem with software development these days worldwide. Now we all know that software testing is all about evaluating as well as verifying a software product or an application just to ensure that it is doing what it is supposed to do. Software testing ensures to get rid of unnecessary issues, and bugs and leads to enhanced performance of the delivered product. Now this is something we all know, what we don’t know is that earlier software testing was separated from the entire software development lifecycle. And the Software tester was involved only when the product was ready to be launched or hit the market.

And since there was a limited amount of time, the software might often get released with numerous bugs and errors. This would definitely damage the brand’s reputation in the long run. Moreover, the defective softwares can seamlessly degrade all your existing interconnected systems resulting in severe malfunction.

One of the most popular examples to take into consideration is that Nissan had to bear the loss of around 3 million cars due to a software issue in airbag sensor detectors. This brings us to the very important aspect here, why software testing should no longer be considered as an afterthought.

• When you try developing complicated applications, the scope of errors and issues increases. Here software testing must be taken into consideration right from the beginning for identifying defects and errors and fixing them right before the product is being delivered.

• Another crucial reason to conduct quality assurance best practices is that the overall product’s quality gets improved. An exceptional product is said when it is thoroughly tested and is bug-free.

• If you are presenting well-tested software, your customers are compelled to trust your brand and products.

• There is no scope for any security issues or vulnerabilities. With security breaches happening every now and then, attackers are found looking for small loopholes. So when software is tested thoroughly, the scope for unwanted issues and bugs seamlessly reduces. As a result, attackers when trying to inject malicious code seamlessly are unable to succeed.

• Lastly, software testing can turn out to be pretty cost savings. Yes, for many of us, this reason can go unnoticed. But trust me, not doing so can compel you to pay a hefty price. You see software patching in general is pretty expensive than software testing as a whole.

Software Testing Life Cycle

• Gathering and analyzing requirements

• Test Planning

• Test Case Development

• Test Environment Setup

• Test Execution

• Test Closure

Now each and every stage is important, one cannot afford to miss any stage in particular. However, since we don’t have much time to delve into every stage of the software testing life cycle. Let’s just focus on one for a while; i.e. Test environment. The following post focuses on what is the test environment and why it plays a significant role in the entire software testing life cycle.

Introducing Test Environment

Well, a test environment is basically a pure set-up of different kinds of hardware and softwares where testing teams tend to execute test cases easily. You see, once the software is designed, an interface is required where they can be executed and that’s when the test environment comes into play. Here all tests can be successfully run by integrating hardware, software, proper network configurations, and all the required data. The test environment acts as a perfect set-up featuring a wide range of test-related tools, hardware, softwares and network configured.

So is the test environment the same for every software testing procedure? No, of course not! It varies from product to product and the configuration depends on the app. Now I have come across many of you who have this misconception that the test environment and test bed are the same. Which is not the case. Though they might seem similar, they aren’t test beds that can be considered as a type of test environment featuring lots and lots of test data to verify relevant functionalities of the developed software application.

The test environment is used for making sure that the quality and overall functionality of the developed application is pretty intact. All the current bugs and errors are being fixed. Moreover, here software developers get to know how the code will perform once it goes live.

Types of Test Environment

• Integration Test Environment - As the name implies, here software modules are well-integrated and professionals are asked to keep tabs just to make sure that the integrated behavior is verified. There is no predefined how many numbers of modules should be integrated, you can integrate one or two or as many as you want. Moreover, functional testing is done to verify the overall behavior and correctness of the application developed. The integration test environment should be able to imitate the production environment closely.

• Performance Test Environment - The next kind of test environment is the performance test environment. Here developers can measure while interacting how quick the applications respond. Several aspects such as page load speeds, input processing, stability, and reliability are taken into account for conducting this type of test environment.

• Security Test Environment - As the name implies, here programmers are asked to keep tabs on all the security aspects of the software. Specialists are brought on board to examine how safe and secure the developed application turns out to be. Moreover, they will double-check if the application can be saved from malicious programs, viruses, threat actors, etc. Other than that, authorization and authentication features are also given quite an importance here.

• Chaos Test Environment - Now this particular kind of test environment is said when the test environment analyzes the resiliency of the developed application. Here testers are asked to identify potential areas where the application might fail sooner or later. Here both development and IT teams can witness how the application will perform under stressful circumstances. Also, how will the application react in case of any unplanned downtimes?

Basically, each and every type of test environment is conducted to enhance the user experience and be assured that the application will perform in accordance to the pre-defined expectations and needs.

Why is Test Environment Important?

So we all know that a test environment ensures seamless bugs clearance what we don’t know is that it offers a wide range of benefits and advantages such as:

• Saves time and money

One of the obvious benefits offered by a test environment is that it saves ample time and money. Yes, when you end up using a virtual platform, lots of time can be saved. The earlier a bug is detected, the faster it can be fixed saving ample time for both software developers as well as testers. There was a time when such tests were performed in-house which turned out to be pretty costly and inefficient. Fortunately, this is not the case anymore! Now do you know what every organization cannot afford? The commitment to develop and maintain an accurate test environment. So leasing in-house systems or hiring a reliable software development company featuring a test environment as a service can be quite blissful and beneficial.

• Quick time to market

The next benefit offered by the test environment is that it offers quick time to market. Now generally time to market is measured of the entire duration of the product, right from the time the product idea is conceived to the moment the product is available for sale. Here having a shorter time to market can turn out to be pretty beneficial because the products are launched right before any of your competitors does. A test environment ensures that all the products are tested precisely and efficiently.

• Seamless coordination

The next benefit offered by the test environment is that it offers seamless collaboration and coordination. Also, in case of any sudden change, the software programmers are in great control. All the potential collisions between changes can be avoided and should be in the very first place since they result in making the test environment non-functional. With great coordination, pre-defined and measurable outcomes can be expected.

On and all, the Test environment is a pretty crucial aspect of the entire software development lifecycle. An incorrect environment does not just lead to huge losses but inconsistent results and outcomes.

Key Learnings

• Maintain the test environment to its recent version

• Keep a constant eye on it

• Get rid of all the outdated tools and technologies

• Keep improving on a frequent basis

• Give importance to automation

So that’s all for now! Keep watching the space for more information and updates regarding the same.