Test Data Management

Flexible Deployment

Test Data Automation for the Age of Agile

Centralized TDM

In this era of continuous integration and delivery, there is a critical need for accelerated test data design and provisioning. Traditional Test Data Management (TDM) systems are centralized platforms that primarily copy, subset, mask and refresh production data. Some TDM systems offer synthetic data – but for a limited range of use cases and data formats.

Centralized Test Data Management platforms for designing and provisioning test data are proving too cumbersome for the age of Agile. A large, centralized TDM team can be costly and this approach restricts the ability of Agile teams to work quickly and independently and can introduce delays of days to weeks. For DevOps, test data is needed for a variety of test cases at many stages of the CI/CD pipeline. Any delay in designing and provisioning data slows down the throughput of the release pipeline.

 

When production data is used for testing, it often lacks the required data for specific test case objectives such as load, negative, edge case, unique, transactional data or data that is in a specific state. As a result, most organizations that are embracing Agile and DevOps are now implementing distributed self service platforms that enable teams to design their own test data at an accelerated pace.

GenRocket’s Test Data Automation (TDA) platform is designed for Agile and DevOps evolution. It’s a true Self Service Synthetic Test Data platform that allows testers to design and deploy their own test data and make it immediately available to their test automation systems.

 

As each test case is developed during an Agile sprint, testers can quickly configure a Test Data Case containing instructions for generating real-time synthetic test data during test execution. This is the essence of Test Data Automation – the ability to model and design the data you need, and then immediately deploy it into a test automation environment.

As Test Data Cases are designed, they are stored and managed in a shared repository for re-use by other testers and adapted for functional, non-functional and regression testing. Test Data Automation is the modern approach for provisioning test data delivering data on-demand for greater coverage and improved organizational efficiency.

A Consistent Process for Test Data Automation

GenRocket has developed a consistent approach for testers to follow for test data automation. The GenRocket Methodology is a simple process that guides the tester through the 4 steps associated with each Test Data Case they create:

 

1. Model the data to be generated during testing
2. Design the variety and volume of data for testing
3. Deploy test data cases into a test environment
4. Manage test data projects in a shared repository

By following this basic process, testers can work independently to provision their own data on-demand as they improve test coverage and the quality of software released to production.

Generate Any Data in Any Format

Equipped with a library of more than 660 data generators and more that 79 data receivers (output formats) to choose from, just about any test data can be designed and deployed rapidly.

Any test category: Generate test data for unit, integration, system, and performance testing

These common examples of test categories just scratch the surface of possible use cases for test data generated by GenRocket’s TDA platform.

Any Output Format: Generate test data for SQL and NoSQL databases or in any file format

GenRocket can generate structured or unstructured data, flat or nested XML, JSON, Parquet, Avro, Snowflake, SWIFT or Kafka messages, multiple file formats (e.g., XLS, CSV, VSAM) and connect over REST API’s, Socket API’s or SOAP.

Any Tool or Framework: Integrate test data generation with test tools and CI/CD pipelines

You can launch GenRocket Test Data Cases many ways including via a batch file, shell script, at the command line or via Jenkins. Data is generated for a typical functional test case for a CI/CD pipeline in as little as 100 milliseconds – what we like to call “on demand, real time” test data. This process of launching Test Data Cases can be repeated to automatically regenerate accurate, fresh data for every test run.

 

With GenRocket, test data becomes a scalable resource for testers to increase test coverage through unlimited data variety, ensure system performance under peak load conditions, and accelerate test operations as you fully automate your test environment.