views:

15

answers:

1

I am facing a new task in my job and I need to find out how to generate and administer test data. Googling led to a lot of information about specific test data generation like filling a database with random data or camouflaged production data, generating files, generating test data with multi-objective genetic algorithms to minimize test data and optimize coverage, etc.

But my task is somehow harder, because the environment is not only one database, it's a heterogeneous environment, which evolved over time, consisting of databases, files, different servers, programs, etc. Time shall also be simulated by the files aging and so on.

I am somehow lost here and need some starting points from where I can dig further into the materia.

Do you know any tools, knowledge sources, websites, books, experiential reports or something else considering the topic "Evolving testing environments"?

+1  A: 

Sounds like a daunting environment; I'd suggest using a "divide and conquer" approach to identify all the test data variables. Make a list of each element of the environment needs to be varied under test, e.g.

  • Database type
  • File age
  • File size
  • Server operating system
  • Programs running on the server

(I'm just guessing at the different elements here based on your question). Then, for each element, make a list of values for it, e.g.

  • Database type: Oracle, MySQL, PostGreSQL
  • Server operating system: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, Fedora 12 Linux

When you're done with that, figure out which values are most important to test; for example; you might want to prioritize Oracle if 80% of your customers use Oracle.

Finally, you should have a set of values for the different environment elements that you can use to create test environments by using different combinations of the element values, using the most important ones first.

gareth_bowles
I really like your idea of an iterative approach and I feel ashamed for not having this kind of idea. But your gave me a starting point. TY!
bitschnau