How Many Test Environments Needed

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How many test
environments needed

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• Most of the software development organizations
  have test environments that play a crucial role
  in error-free software testing and release.
• These test environments must be properly
  configured and managed with a carefully created
  test environment management strategy. However, it
  is not as easy as it seems and most of the
  organizations even fail to acknowledge the same
  thing and end up in trickier situations.
• One of the most confusing issues these
  organizations face is to determine the number of
  test environments needed.
• Well, the answer is very clear, but still, no one
  knows. It depends on your requirements, teams and
  other players. As they say, a one-size-fits-all
  solution does not work here.
• In this post, we will try to answer this
  question-how many test environments do I need?
• Stay tuned!

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• What are test environments?
• First and foremost, we need to understand what
  test environments are. A test environment is
  nothing but the finest setup of hardware,
  software and data that helps software testing
  professionals to execute test cases.
• It helps professionals to effectively test the
  functionalities of software to identify issues
  and to release software smoothly.
• There is a wide range of test environments
  available and there are many factors that will
  decide which environments you need for your
  organization.
• Some of the test environments are development
  environments, CI integration environments, QA
  environments and production environments.

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How many environments do I need? There are the
criteria that we will discuss how to decide which
and how many environments you need for your
organizational needs. Organisation
Size When you want to decide which
environments to be used, the size of the
organization matters. If you have a large number
of human resources, you might afford to have
dedicated teams of designers, QAs, developers who
can take care of the environment. On the other
hand, smaller companies might not have more
testing needs and they might also not need more
test environments. Apart from testing
environments, you also need to determine a test
environment management tool required to manage
test environments.
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• Organisations Life Phase
• If you have a startup, your testing needs might
  be different than a giant company. Your test
  environment management strategy will be different
  too.
• The company lifecycles play a huge role when
  deciding the number of test environments they
  need. For example, a startup would find it more
  logical to establish itself in the market rather
  than releasing high-quality and faultless
  products.
• So, it has an altogether different strategy to
  follow rather than working on test environment
  strategy. On the other hands, established
  companies have their reputation at stake and they
  also are responsible to their stakeholders.
• Established companies will need more environments
  with a flawless and efficient test environment
  management strategy compared to startups.

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Software Type Which type of software are you
developing? The answer also plays a crucial role
when it comes to deciding the number of test
environments we need. For example, a
database-based web application with a flourishing
user interface might require UI and comprehensive
testing. When you are developing software that is
targeted at final users, you need to go for user
acceptance testing. If you have libraries and
frameworks, you might need unit and integration
tests. The type of software you are developing
will also decide the number of test environments
you need. Domain or Industry When you belong to
an industry that is highly regulated, you have
the legal obligation to meet the rules and
regulations set by the industry. Here, in that
case, you might require an additional testing
environment to test product compliance.
Conclusion Modern software development
companies do understand the importance of test
environment management for the software delivery
process. The test development manager must access
the needs of the organization and decide the
number of test environments required. Hope this
article will help you to clear your doubts about
the number of test environments required by the
organizations.
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Contact Us

• Company Name Enov8
• Contact Person Ashley Hosking
• Address Level 5, 14 Martin Place, Sydney, 2000,
  New South Wales,
• Australia
• Email enov8australia_at_gmail.com
• Phone(s) 61 2 8916 6391
• Fax [phone]
• Website - https//www.enov8.com

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