What is TDM (Test Data Management)?  

The term ‘TDM’ is defined as Test Data Management that is crucial throughout the test life cycle. While testing the application, a tremendous amount of data is generated that is needed to manage carefully. Moreover, with an effective TDM (Test Data Management) strategy, it is possible to minimize the time spent for processing the data, and it helps create reports to maintain the efficiency of the whole product.   

The key to how well the software/application/app works once carried out in its production environment varies based on the rigorous testing that goes into it. Due to privacy and security concerns, testing in the production environment is not always a feasible option. Even, sometimes it becomes too challenging to create a copy of production data. However, Test Data Creation and Management provides your company with a collection of data that can quickly line up with the production environment and helps collect all application properties with formats in the event of masking sensitive information. Therefore, it allows you to conduct meticulous testing to experience glitch-free deployment.   

What are the Three Types of Test Data?   

Three types of Test Data are:  

• Normal Use Data.   

• Extreme/Borderline Data.   

• Invalid Data.   

Normal Use Data   

Normal Use Data is that data, which one can predict to insert into the application.   

For instance, there is any input form that helps users fill in their usernames. Now, it is supposed that users will enter their username either in a letter or a number format. Thus, Normal Use Data contains those usernames made of several combinations of letters and numbers. The program requires an error-free system before operating with this kind of data.   

Extreme/Borderline Data   

Extreme or Borderline Data is considered for testing the boundary of acceptable data, and it can be processed similarly as Normal Use Data. This type of data is suitable for testing the hard limits written into the software.   

For instance, if the user is having alerts to enter a username between 1 and 10 characters, the username can be entered between 1 and 10 characters for the Extreme/Borderline Test Data.   

Invalid Data   

Invalid Data is the type of data where the program rejects as invalid. It happens when users enter the wrong username or don’t fill the form based on the correct data type. It might be occurred due to no allowance of specific characters or when the value falls outside the established parameters of the program.   

For example, if the user is asked to enter a username with between 1 and 10 characters, the username of invalid test data can be username, or a username with 13 characters, or one that doesn't use standard letters and numbers (foreign characters or emojis, for example). Thus, when entering the wrong data by users, the application doesn’t support as per settings of invalid data, which is set up by developers while making the application.   

Major Reasons to Consider Test Data Management   

With a systematic and dedicated TDM process and Test Data Management Team, organizations can help their customers get immense benefits.   

Here are reasons that will help you know why it is important to think about Test Data Management.   

• Reduction in Cost   

Test Data Management helps in performing traceability of the test data to test cases. This provides ease in detecting patterns or bugs early as possible and gives a bird-eye view of the better test data coverage. Due to the easy test data coverage and early bug detection, one can easily minimize the production cost.   

• Centralized Management of Data   

A unique feature of the TDM process is that Data is provisioned as per the testing type, and one can manage all the data in one place. We can access the same repository that helps in provisioning the data for various testing types, such as Functional, Performance, Integration, etc. Through this technique, companies can take care of the redundancy of data copies and help you reduce the cost of storage.   

• Data Reusability   

Test Data Management includes a feature of reusability. Also, this feature can help in post savings. This is because reusable data is first sorted out, and then this data is archiving in the central repository for future use or whenever the data is needed. Software testers can use the archived data whenever the requirement for reusable data arises.   

• Data Security and Compliance   

Governments imply the strict regulations and compliance rules on companies or businesses that they have to be followed by hook or crook. Software development companies always give priority to data security and compliance. For that, they consider the Data Masking task as an essential part of a TDM (Test Data Management) process.   

• Better Use of Storage Space   

Multiple teams can create multiple copies of the same production data for personal use to minimize the number of copies of data during project management. In this context, storage space is wasted, and the same data is created for duplicate copies. On the flip side, TDM allows teams to share the data from the same repository and help use the storage space efficiently.   

• Customers Trust & Confidence   

Good data coverage and having quality data are some of the key benefits of the Test Data Management process. During the testing stage, software testing companies reduce the bugs as early as possible. As a result, it becomes feasible for customers to acquire a high-quality and fully scalable application. When customers will get flawless results from the application, they will put their trust in the organization. Consequently, customers can expect enormous benefits when they opt for the Test Data Management services of software testing companies.   

Are you looking for a next-generation Test Data solution or in need of Test Data Management Services? Talk to the experts at BugRaptors. At BugRaptors, we use the Test Data Management Suite as a web-based tool to manage the test data from the centralized platform. We ensure that our Test Data Management suite has a single and easy-to-use interface to perform testing and manage configurations by our teams. Our tool features a Test Data Generation, Test Data Extraction, Data Masking, sub setting, and having capabilities to refresh your data source with the data request-based workflow for end-to-end Test Data Management Process.   

How Can We Help You?  

• Creating fresh test data from scratch that mimics the production environment. We also confirm various formats and rules of the deployment data to produce matching sets of test data. Hence, our testing process is extremely useful and valid.  

• Handling your business-based sensitive information by following necessary security and compliance standards.   

• Protecting the data of our clients is our topmost priority, and we protect your data through masking during test data generation and while reserving its original properties.   

• We conduct testing in a production-like environment to cut down the bugs, fixes, and rollbacks that shoot up the overall cost.   

• We handle and synchronize data in different formats and manage the test data from multiple sources for integrated testing and utilization.   

Fill the contact form and let us know your special areas of interest so that we can serve you the best for Test Data Management.