DevOp Test Environments: Determining What Kind Is Right for Your Team
Software applications make individuals’ personal and professional lives easier and more streamlined. However, for software applications to achieve such outcomes, engineers must put them through a rigorous testing process to help ensure they are fully functional at the time of release.
If you’re not sure which testing process is right for your team, here are three DevOp test environments that will help your team ensure software applications perform optimally before being pushed to product environments.
The Best DevOp Test Environments for Your Team
1: Development Environment
The development environment is where development tasks such as writing new lines of code, programming, debugging, and designing take place in the development environment. It’s usually configured with frontend and backend services but is not set up to make API calls to external vendor systems.
Vendors charge you based on the number of transactional calls you make to their APIs. Therefore, it would be best for your team to start making API calls after integration testing is complete as it is unnecessary at this stage.
One of the greatest perks of the development environment is that it allows developers to work on software applications without having to worry about affecting business users. It can also accommodate multiple development environments, allowing engineers to focus on their specific tasks without having to worry about code conflict.
2: QA Environment
A QA (quality assurance) test environment measures whether a software application can meet end-user expectations by ensuring that new features function cohesively for users.
Technical testers use the QA environment to verify whether or not data transfer, data persistence, and overall system functionality get maintained throughout the entire system. It is often described as unstable because it is the first layer of testing and is accessible by many engineers on a team.
Technical testers perform interface-to-database and end-to-end (E2E) testing during this stage. On the other hand, engineers check for conflicting changes, resolve dependencies, and ensure that new code meets system requirements.
3: Staging Environment
The staging environment is where developers create an instance of a software application that they are confident enough to show immediate owners (or sponsors) but not users. Before exposing a software application to end-users, developers put the software through rigorous testing, including user, load, mobile, and end-to-end testing.
The staging environment is usually restricted to a few selected users. Whitelisted IPs, emails, and your developer team are the only groups involved in the staging environment. Restricting the staging phase to a few people allows your team to test the application away from the public eye and ensure no issues arise once it gets deployed to the public environment.
Help Your Team Set Itself Apart with the Best Test Environment
The above test environments can help your team test codes and features before they deploy a software application. Don’t just let your team develop an application and launch it. Do your due diligence and have your team test your application safely and efficiently with the above test environments. Get your product market-ready today with the best test environment.