6 Best Practices for Test Environment Management (TEM)

Organizations are adopting the shift-left testing approach with a heavy focus on continuous testing to improve application quality and reduce the possibility of failure after deployment.

There is always a need to establish a test environment similar to the production to ensure better quality, and preparing such testing environments demands extensive planning, proper execution, and management. Test Environment Management (TEM) aims to develop a stable and usable environment consisting of the necessary hardware, software, databases, and networking components to execute test scenarios and identify bugs.

This blog covers 6 best practices that companies can use in 2024 to overcome the TEM implementation challenges and ensure their test environment management strategy is a complete success.

What is Test Environment Management?

Before diving deep, let's understand what is TEM. Test Environment Management involves supervising, handling, and managing enterprise-level test environments. It uses processes, tools, and resources to manage multiple configuration parts like software, hardware, databases, test data, and applications.

Main Types of IT Environments

Understanding different IT environments is key for effective Test Environment Management. Each serves a unique purpose and requires specific configurations to meet organizational needs. Here are the main types of IT environments:

Development Environment

The development environment is where developers program and create software. It includes tools like IDEs (e.g., IntelliJ, Microsoft Visual Studio) for building, testing, and debugging. This environment allows developers to iterate and improve software without affecting end users. A robust development environment attracts top talent and ensures seamless software development.

Testing Environment

The test environment is where teams evaluate application quality and perform software tests allowing developers to find and solve defects. This environment is created by allocating necessary resources, including new physical or virtual devices. Software Tests such as performance, chaos, system integration, and unit testing are conducted here. A close replica of the production environment ensures accurate software testing results, reducing rework and user complaints.

Production Environment

The production environment, or deployment environment, is where the application is live and accessible to end users. It requires continuous monitoring, testing, and refining to ensure optimal performance. Feature flags introduce new features to select users while maintaining the current version for others. This environment is critical for processing workflows and driving results, whether for internal use or customer-facing applications.

Operational Environment

An operational environment refers to the physical and virtual infrastructure that supports software and applications. IT operations maintain operational stability, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness. A robust operational environment powers reliable applications and secures networks, supporting the organization’s software and establishing a secure, reliable, and cost-effective network to meet business needs.

Each of these environments is important in the software development lifecycle, ensuring smoother deployments, reduced downtime, and higher-quality applications. For more details, read our article: What Test Environments do you need? Dev, Test, Staging?

The most common TEM problems

Due to market competition, software products are becoming more complex and integrated. This is triggering the management of test environments as the biggest challenge.

You've probably come across test environments set up situations where many hidden problems pop up before launching a product. The most common TEM problems include:

Let's discuss 6 best practices that should help you avoid such problems.

6 TEM Best Practices

Test Environment Management challenges have made companies worry about lower test coverage and escalating operating costs. Thankfully, some test environment best practices can ease these challenges and deliver positive results faster.

To sum up, Test Environment Management is a complex process that requires thorough planning and coordination. Effective automation and standardized methods can simplify and make it more efficient.

TEM is the right solution to automate the CI/CD process, deploy frequent releases, decrease time to market, eliminate possibilities of bugs and ease communication among various teams.

Unfortunately, there is no universal tool or strategy for all R&D teams. Following our TEM best practices and some well-integrated Jira App like Golive helps companies to optimize their resources and ensure that test environments run linearly by keeping track of demand and usage.