Overview of Test data Management (TDM)

Test data management is a type of operation that ensures accurate data is ready for the testers to help them in their swanky work process. Test data management (TDM) accomplishes compatible test data properly and flawlessly. TDM provides and creates a brief automated test that can benefit users without any difficulty in the middle of their work.

In the past, the data collected by the application team members were not well structured. But nowadays in this modern era technology has improved a lot that we never imagined. For smooth and onboarding tasks any company uses modern technologies. The major aspects of test data management are regulation and compliance.

Features of Test Data Management:

1. Data profiling: Examine gathered data to determine its quality, structure and any potential problems.
2. Data Transformation: Modify or alter data as necessary for particular test situations.
3. Data Refresh: Update test data on a regular basis to reflect application changes or to keep the data current.
4. Data masking: To preserve data privacy and adhere to regulations, make sure that private data is anonymized or hidden.
5. Data Validation: Confirm that test data complies with established guidelines and standards for data quality.
6. Data Usage Reports: Create reports to track data utilization, detailing which data sets were used during particular test runs.
7. Data Policies: Establish and uphold rules and regulations regarding how test data should be handled, stored and rid off.
8. Protection of Sensitive Data: Ensure that sensitive data, including personal identifiers, financial information and secret information, is properly safeguarded.

Working of TDM:

1. Test data management analyzes each data with the help of new-fangled procedures. It consolidated synthetic data by identifying the hiatus in the existing test data.
2. This enables companies to create the smallest set of data that is required for extensive testing. This is one of the most time-consuming ways to maintain companies’ overall needs regarding testing management.
3. Test data managers can easily recognize the flaw and it can be spontaneously reclaimed. The information can be available in various structures that can be spread across different frameworks. To make this task easy and smooth it needs to use a test data management tool to make sure that the test team members find the right informational indexes before the testing application.
4. With the help of test data management, prosperous data is put away in a central warehouse as reusable assets. Reusable data can be accessible later according to the needs of the testing team.
5. It can be readily recovered at any time. The testers will receive the automated data whenever they need it, they don’t need to wait for it or prepare it from scratch, by their requests the information will automatically be delivered for quick access.
6. It reduces a lot of time and test data management helps to solve the bug problems and avoid any interruption when application team members are looking for the data.
7. When the test data is dispensed, they are instinctively “cloned”. The initial data will remain unhampered. These hectic tasks become facile as the application team members can work equally well without any methods of transferring the huge copies of the test data.
8. It provides the utmost security of the information and prevents it from getting lost while making any changes by the team members. This high-quality system is done by the test management team at a lower cost.

Importance of Test Data Management:

1. TDM Provides high-quality software that will work effectively.
2. It will obstruct unusual bug fixes.
3. Stored the primitive data successfully
4. Decreases the risks of misplacement of the information.
5. Provides test data to application members in an accurate time.
6. Avoids higher costs.
7. Maintains security for sensitive information.
8. Keeps data always in the right position.
9. Provides easy access to the testers.
10. No extra steps for the test data by a lot of team members.

Best tools for the Test Data Management:

Data can be stored precisely in any shape, type, format, and as well as in different locations. Consequently, these tools will search for accurate test data for the testing application. Then these will differentiate the two types of data and the tool will cover the sensitive information as the consumer’s details. 

1. The tool will edit the differences between the authentic information and the baseline information to look out for the validity of the petition.
2. The tools will recheck the test data to get exact data.
3. These tools will help in the entire testing process and will save a huge amount of time.

Some of the tools are

1. Informatica- Data provisioning, data subsetting, data masking and data profiling are all included.
2. Compuware- It intends to make the extraction, masking and delivery of test data simpler.
3. Delphix- It can interact with many databases and systems and allows you to build and deliver masked or fake information copies for testing.
4. Microfocus Data Express- Sensitive data is hidden and portions of production data are created.
5. IBM InfoSphere Optim- It allows to produce, subset and conceal data for testing while preserving the security and privacy of the data.

Challenges and Solutions of TDM:

Proper availability of test data

• Solution- Availing sufficient amount of required data before testing.

Maintaining data quality

• Solution- Properly checking the quality of test data before using that.

Providing proper storage to test data

• Solution- Providing sufficient storage for storing test data and focusing on processing cost and storage and manage accordingly.

Lack of tools and skills for data extraction

• Solution- Knowing properly how to use different tools.

Identifying corrupted data at an earlier stage

• Solution- Removing the corrupted data from earlier stage.

Lack of domain knowledge

• Solution- Acquiring required domain knowledge beforehand.