Posted on

What Makes a Good Test Data Manager?

This article was published with permission by Michiel Mulders.

Have you implemented test data management at your organization? It will surely benefit you if your organization processes critical or sensitive business data. The importance of test data is emphasized by the fact that issues related to test data account for 15% of all software defects. If you’re looking to hiring a test data manager, read on. We will discuss exactly what a test data manager does, what skills a test data manager needs, and the benefits of hiring a test data manager.  

Posted on

In Search of Quality: QA Must Be Engaged in Search Engine Development

If you’re reading this, you’re likely already well aware of the value of watertight QA practice and have a good understanding of what it entails. Yet, there is possibly a team delivering business-critical software at your organization that has thus far escaped the forensic focus of your testing. You need to talk to them, and this blog is a primer to help you do just that.

So, if you want to do one thing today to increase the measurable impact of QA at your organization, do this: find out which team is developing your organization’s search technologies and ask them how they’re testing them. There’s a fair chance that it’s a third-party search specialist, working with their own set of cutting-edge tools. In this case, verifying the quality of their testing practices becomes even more pertinent.

Posted on

Test Data Management Lagging Behind Automation in Testing: 10 Reasons Why That’s a Problem

Test Data Management: Still a Problem Worth Solving

The latest QA industry research suggests that Test Data Management (TDM) has remained static at many organizations, in spite of all the advances in test automation and move towards DevOps.

In fact, the tools and techniques used to provision test data remain largely the same as when the Curiosity Software team first began in QA, some 30 years ago. 65% of organizations still use production data in testing. 36% mask it and 30% subset data before provisioning it to test environments. Meanwhile, just 18% synthesize data using automated techniques. [i]  

Posted on

GDPR and Testing: Are You a Skeptic or a Gambler?

I started writing and speaking about the significance of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) for testing about five years ago. My alarm then, at the implications of the tightening legislation, was frequently met with two forms of response:

1. The skeptic: “Big organizations will simply group together and resist this in the courts. Nothing will change in practice and there’s no way that national data protection agencies will be able to demand so much change so quickly, let alone levy fines this big.”

Posted on

Is Your Test Data Waiting on Your DevOps Team?

Is there anything more frustrating than to be stuck waiting? Regardless of what you are waiting for, it’s not a good place to be. According to the 2018-2019 World Quality Report (WQR) published by Capgemini, “…the lack of test environments and data is the number-one challenge in applying testing to Agile development." That means a lot of waiting and a lot of frustration.

Businesses need applications, enhancements, and fixes to be deployed at a velocity never before seen. Once the domain of small, nimble start-ups, even the largest of the large IT shops are getting in on the DevOps act, all for the promise of speed-of-delivery. As more and more organizations implement DevOps and CI/CD processes in order to keep pace with business demands, these issues are becoming more acute.

Posted on

How to Ensure Effective TDM in Continuous Test Automation

Test Data Management prevents your Continuous Test Automation strategy from going into the dump. Wasn't automation supposed to take over redundant processes, lessen the burden on manual testers, and speed up the entire testing cycle? If testers are still required to keep updating the test data every time for the test to run successfully, doesn't that defy the whole purpose of automation and further weigh down poor testers under a load of tedious tasks?

DevOps is teaming up with automation to encourage continuous processes of integration, testing, and delivery. The dependency of DevOps on automation is immense. While everyone is seeing the glittering on-stage drama of DevOps backed by automated testing, they are mostly ignorant of what goes on backstage. Like a puppeteer who seamlessly orchestrates the movement of the props for presenting a successful puppet show, test data determines the successful completion of a software test. Now, what if the material of the puppet thread used is changed without informing the puppeteer that he needs to wear additional protection to avoid cuts? He would injure himself, which might cause the show to halt, resulting in failure. The agility of continuous testing does not provide the scope for conveying the change in time, making implementation of proper test data management practices a necessity for software testing.