Test Environments: The Weakest Link in Your Testing Chain

Test environments are an important part of our testing portfolio, yet often we seem to spend very little time planning, creating, and maintaining them. Julie Gardiner explains the reasons we fail to build test environments that are realistic, reliable, representative, and have integrity. As a result, they become the weakest link in our testing process. Julie provides examples of environments-good, bad, and sometimes ugly-and shares why the ugly are often a symptom of the organization's disregard for testing. She offers practical advice for transforming your current test environment from the weakest into the strongest link of your testing. Julie’s specific advice includes identifying early signs that the environment will cause problems, convincing management that extra resources are required, and tool support to assist you in creating an excellent environment, providing data preparation, test design, oracles, and test execution tools.