Why Does Your Organisation Need Test Data Management?

 

The rapidly changing software development field makes it challenging for organisations and businesses to grow and sustain. In this incredibly competitive IT landscape, having an efficient testing strategy in place is crucial. A robust and effective testing strategy encompasses various elements, one of which remains test data management (TDM).

What Is Test Data Management? 

Test data management involves non-production data (test data)development that reliably resembles a firm’s authentic data. This enables automated systems, applications developers and testers to execute rigorous and valid software tests. 

TDM’s role is also to guarantee that the developed data is of the highest quality possible. Having flawed test data is similar or even worse than no data at all because it will deliver unreliable, erroneous results.

The TDM process also needs to ensure test data availability. It’s no use to develop realistic, high-quality data but unable to retrieve and utilise them when required. 

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Why Is Test Data Management Necessary? 

Facilitate Quality Testing 

The quality and availability of test data is extremely critical. If generic data is utilised for software application testing, various issues may emerge once the application is processed into the production phase. To avoid such complications, applications need to be tested rigorously against data that resembles or mimics the original data that will be utilised later.

Cater To The Dramatically Evolving Business Needs

To meet the end-user requirements, many companies have a rapidly evolving business objective. Therefore, accurate test data is imperative in defining the quality of the Testing. 

As discussed earlier, the testing team spends a substantial amount of time on test data planning and its related tasks. Testing of a functionality gets majorly hindered in many scenarios due to the non-availability of accurate test data. This projects a vital challenge for complete testing coverage.

To Eliminate Complex Team Communication Process 

In certain test cases, the test data set requires to be continuously refreshed. Due to this constant rework, considerable delay in the cycle occurs. Consequently, the market price of the application increases.

In other instances, if the application delivery involves various workgroups in a large firm, the test data development and refreshing require complex coordination across these workgroups.

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Also Read: What Is Test Data Management and Why Does It Matters? 

Adequate Utilisation Of Storage Space 

To ensure accurate testing, it is necessary for the test teams to develop various kinds of data. Enterprises need to consider creating varied datasets that would require storage space or a repository. 

Maintaining a repository is good practice. However, storing unnecessary, excessive test data would significantly increase the storage space. Additionally, keeping such huge chunks of data will also make it more challenging to retrieve the accurate data required for a particular testing if version maintenance and archiving of the repository isn’t updated. 

Most companies generally experience these common challenges for the creation, maintenance and utilisation of test data. Therefore, certain test data management strategies are necessary to be put in place to reduce the degree of these concerns.

Why Production Data Can’t Be Utilised For Testing? 

Due to regulatory constraints and security concerns, utilising production data for Testing is often not practical. Data with sensitive or personally identifiable information needs to be altered. This prevents sensitive personal data from getting exposed to the application development and testing teams. 

Test data management employs data masking methodologies to conceal and cloud personally identifiable information while still maintaining the data formatting and other properties essential for Testing.