Effective test data provisioning is a key challenge for software development. A slow process leads to a bottleneck for teams waiting on fresh data, and a lack of quality can lead to costly mistakes down the road.
Enabling developers to grab commonly needed data on their own through a self-service portal accelerates testing and reduces the risk of errors due to out-of-date data. This is possible using a combination of data masking and virtualization.
Reusability
The ability to reuse test data management is essential for ensuring effective testing processes. However, it can be challenging to provision reusable test data that is accurate and realistic. Fortunately, there are a number of ways to manage test data reusability.
For example, many test data management tools generate fake data to create realistic test environments for developers. This is a cost-effective way to provide high-quality test data for various testing scenarios. It is important to manage this data carefully, as it must be updated regularly to ensure that the information is accurate.
Moreover, the reusability of test data is also important because it can reduce the costs associated with deploying new applications. This is because it can be more expensive to restore data from backup than to create new data sets. Additionally, it can take longer to restore large datasets, which can delay development. Providing teams with self-service portals that allow them to grab commonly used datasets themselves can reduce this time significantly.
Security
Test data is a key part of software testing but it’s often difficult to secure. Sensitive data such as names, addresses, credit card information and more must not be uncovered during the testing process. With shorter release cycles and tightening privacy laws, the risk of a data breach is real.
One way to ensure that sensitive data is not used is to copy the production database and replace some fields with dummy values. This method saves on storage, compute and licensing costs but it does not provide adequate test coverage and can leave sensitive values unmasked.
A better approach is to use masking technology which takes the production data and obfuscates sensitive values, leaving only realistic values for test cases. This approach is fast, efficient and meets privacy requirements, saving teams both time and money. It also avoids the need for a manual process, which can be prone to errors and is more complex. It also allows for self-service provisioning and sharing, eliminating the need for IT ticketing systems and allowing individuals to provision their own data on demand.
Accessibility
In a world of DevOps and agile software development, the need for high quality test data is more critical than ever. However, the speed of software innovation outpaces many companies’ ability to provision this critical data.
Whether it’s synthetic data that simulates real-world use cases or actual data sets from production systems, creating these datasets can be challenging. Similarly, the process of keeping these data sets refreshed can be time-consuming and inefficient for developers and testers.
The key to effective test data management (TDM) is to create a system where the most frequently used datasets are available for self-service via a portal and automatically refreshed on demand. This reduces storage requirements and makes it easy for teams to access the right data for their testing needs. It also frees up data managers to focus their efforts on sourcing and preparing custom datasets for the most challenging test scenarios. Ultimately, these strategies can help companies achieve the agility they need to compete in today’s digital economy.
Scalability
Scalability is an important principle for technology systems and is a core focus for C-suite executives overseeing IT departments. It’s not a silver bullet, but it is an essential ingredient in the process of developing a successful IT stack that meets business needs and can support unforeseen growth.
One of the biggest challenges to scalability is making sure that test data management tools is reusable and easily accessible for developers and testers. This can be difficult if the test data is not provided in an efficient manner or does not accurately reflect production data.
A combined approach of masking and virtualization, like SQL Provision, allows for lightweight, realistic and compliant test data to be quickly provisioned in development environments. It can also provide a single pane of glass for management, enabling oversight on where data clones are, how much disk space they are using and who created them. This can save significant time and effort for your teams.
