QA Environment

What is a QA Environment?

Think of it like a controlled setting in which products are tested. Its purpose? To provide a safe space for teams to test, where issues can be quickly identified and resolved before a product is released. This controlled setting enables QA teams to test a variety of conditions to validate that it’s working to specifications. Beyond the test equipment, they frequently maintain a range of QA tools and applications, such as bug tracking systems, test management software, and automation tools, to help streamline the testing process and improve efficiency. The goals of a QA lab are to perform rapid, repeatable tests and quickly attain a root cause analysis for any issue encountered. 

Types of Deployment Environments (Including QA)

1. Development environment 

An environment usually set up on a local machine that may consist of a version control system, an integrated development environment (IDE), and other tools that the developer uses to safely write and test code. The goal of the development environment is to provide an isolated environment where developers can work on their code changes without affecting others. Unit testing generally takes place in these environments, as the developers write tests to validate that their functions are working properly.

2. Sandbox environment

An isolated environment used for experimentation and development purposes. The sandbox is used to test new features, changes to the application, or new technologies. It provides a safe place where developers can test their changes without impacting production or other environments. Sandboxes generally have a collection of dev environments and will frequently have unit testing done. However, this is more of an experimentation area to try out ideas instead of validating that everything is working correctly. 

3. Quality Assurance (QA Test) environment

The QA Test environment is set up to perform software testing that will validate it’s working to the product specifications. The QA environment generally has many types of devices, data, or other variables. Scripts and automation are key for scalable QA testing. Generally, this environment is used for “White box” testing, where the test professionals are aware of what’s happening behind the scenes in the product, and often have access to debugging tools and other types of monitoring.

4. User Acceptance Testing (UAT)/Beta environment

This environment is used by end-users to test and validate the product functions as expected in the wild using real world scenarios. Because the software or product needs to be accessed by external users, the environment needs to be available and stable to perform testing outside of the typically controlled lab environment. This type of testing is often referred to as Beta, Black-box, or Exploratory testing. 

5. Staging environment

A pre-production environment that resembles the production environment as closely as possible. Staging is used to test the application in a real-world scenario before it is released to the public. It is typically used to identify any issues that may arise in a real-world scenario and to test performance and scalability. Some teams will use feature flags instead of staging and release updates directly to live environments with the features disabled or only enabled for specific users. 

6. Production environment 

A live environment where the application is used by the customers. Production is the final destination for the product and is the environment where the app is used for its intended purpose. It is critical that production is stable, secure, and available to ensure that end-users can access the application.

Difficulties of QA Environments

Resource allocation

Ineffective planning for resource usage can impact the overall output and lead to conflicts between teams.

Remote access

When the test environment is located remotely, it can be challenging for the testing team to access the necessary assets such as software, hardware, and other equipment. This often requires support from the remote team, adding an extra layer of complexity to the testing process.

Setup time

Integration testing often requires an elaborate setup time, which can be a challenge for the testing team. This can be further compounded by the complexity of the test configuration.

Shared usage

If the testing environment is shared between development and testing teams, it can result in corrupted test results. To prevent this, it is important to establish clear usage guidelines and schedules.

Complex configurations

Certain tests require complex test environment configurations, which can pose a challenge for the testing team. This requires specialized skills and knowledge, and careful planning to ensure that the test environment is configured correctly.

Scalability

As the number of tests grows, the test environment may need to be scaled up to accommodate the increased load. This can be a challenge, as it requires a significant investment of time and resources to upgrade the environment and ensure that it remains stable.

Data privacy and security

Protecting sensitive data during testing is a critical concern. It is important to have robust data privacy and security protocols in place to ensure that the test data is protected at all times.

Maintenance and updates

Regular maintenance and updates are necessary to keep the test environment functioning effectively. This requires careful planning and coordination to ensure that updates do not interfere with ongoing testing activities.

The Benefits of a Well-Functioning QA Environment

Testing is extremely important to development as it ensures the product works reliably and there are little to no issues that would impact the user experience. To ensure the quality and success of products, a reliable ecosystem must be a priority for quality teams. Thankfully there is a slew of benefits that accompany good testing environments:

• Improved product quality: By thoroughly testing a product in a controlled environment before production, QA teams can identify and fix any bugs or issues before they are released. This leads to a higher-quality product that is more reliable and user-friendly.
• Increased efficiency of testing: With a dedicated environment for testing, QA teams can run tests quickly and easily without having to worry about affecting the production environment. This allows teams to test more scenarios in less time and to quickly identify and fix any issues that arise.
• Improved collaboration between teams: Developers and QA teams can work together to ensure that the product meets the required quality standards. 
• Product enablement and awareness: QA and end users can provide dev teams with feedback on how the product is performing, and developers can use this feedback to make improvements. This leads to a better understanding of the product by everyone that is involved in the development process.
• Reduced costs by resolving issues faster: By identifying and fixing issues early in the development process, QA teams can avoid costly rework that may be required if issues are not caught until later stages. Additionally, by having a dedicated environment for testing, teams can avoid having to spend time and resources on testing in the production environment, which can also help to reduce costs.

The importance of deployment environments

Not having the proper environments will lead to teams tripping over each other (and themselves) in a single environment. Or worse, pushing all releases straight to Production causes all kinds of stress on the development teams and problems for customers. It's important to have diverse environments to isolate the testing process from development and production. This helps to prevent any unintended consequences from affecting the other environments, such as data loss or disruption of service.