Ask a software testing professional, who just received an email from a client about software with some functioning errors or code deflects, the importance of test data management. He will explain precisely why test data management is of paramount importance.
What is test data management?
Test data management (TDM) is the process of planning, designing, obtaining, storing and administering the data for software quality testing and test automation processes. Test data management plays a pivotal role in the test automation process, which we will discuss later.
If you are, anyway, associated with the software testing process, you might have witnessed this issue during your professional tenure. You have tested the software in all the scenarios and it was working well and perfect and during the testing phase, code defects hit you badly. In a worse scenario, a customer finds code defects in the production level and all your development and testing efforts go in vain. The epiphany strikes you hard that you should have ideally-tested software during the QA process.
As someone rightly stated, “Oil is not the next most privileged asset, DATA is.” You need test data to ensure that software testing is performed perfectly and accurately and quality is fully assured in every possible consumer environment. You need quality test data for software testing and if you don’t have it, you need to generate it. There is no other option.
Why is test data management the need of the hour?
Before we dig deep, let’s understand why we need test data management at first. You cannot give a plastic bag to David Warner and expect him to hit a six, can you? The same logic applies to software testing. You cannot use bad data for good test data management. You will require high-quality data or all your efforts and investment in the test automation strategy will go in vain.
Another crucial aspect of test data management is the availability of data. What if you don’t have data when you need it most? You need to ensure that you have high-quality data and are available for you too.
Some organizations tend to try manual test data management which is a slow and error-prone process and might lead to compliance issues too. You cannot just expose sensitive client data like this and break laws. Admittedly, it is not a risk worth taking. Go for a proper TDM solution rather than manually doing it.
Why is TDM so crucial?
Speedy delivery
The modern software landscape keeps evolving and major companies keep deploying their software several times a day and that too while maintaining the unparalleled quality of each version. How is it possible? Well, the answer is test automation. However, to ensure the test automation process to function quickly and efficiently, you need high-quality test data. Ensure that the data is available for you as and when you need it.
Quality control
For example, you have ordered an item from Amazon and it is delivered to your doorsteps on the same day. When you open the wrapper, you find that the item is of poor quality. How would you react to it? Remember, speed is important, but quality is more indispensable. Test data management ensures quality and availability of test data and it helps to complete software testing quickly.
Compliance
You just cannot expose data without worrying about regulations and compliance of the country or state you live in. You have to be data-compliant in all ways to avoid any legal or financial consequences. How TDM helps you in remaining data-compliant? You can employ a mature TDM and data compliance tool which helps to mask data quickly and effectively. Moreover, it also helps to perform compliance analysis and create reports.
Over to you
Test automation is crucial and highly recommended. It does not just ensure the quality of software, but also increases brand credibility and the trust factor. However, organisations are still making mistakes as it is still a new and not-talked-much concept. However, with effective and accurate test data management, you can have the right data at the right time and money for a perfect test automation process to function accurately. Reap benefits of TDM and take your business to the next level.
