The Definitive Guide to

Test Data Management

Table of Contents
1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................03

2. What is Test Data Management?.......................................................................................04

3. Why is Test Data Management Necessary?.....................................................................05

4. What are the six Crucial Aspects of Test Data Management?....................................06

5. What are the Advantages of Test Data Management?................................................07

6. How to Build a Test Data Management Strategy?........................................................08

7. How Does Avo's Intelligent Test Data Management (iTDM)

Solution Improve Your Testing?..........................................................................................09

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Introduction
In this hyper-competitive era, faster time-to-market plays a
vital role in the success of an organization. Any lag accounts
for the 'Cost of delay,' impacting the value a product could
create otherwise. This is the primary reason teams are
adopting an agile approach to software development, testing,
and release. Unfortunately, teams that don't follow suit find it
challenging to deal with this accelerated timeframe.

According to the World Quality Report, 99% of software

developers face numerous challenges with test automation in
an agile environment. While they have adopted agile and
DevOps methodologies in pursuit of delivering high-quality
applications, many have significantly underinvested in the
test data department. Churning out high-volume compliant
test data is one of the most significant pain points.

Responding to this challenge, organizations now realize the

importance of test data management (TDM) as a critical
catalyst for agile testing.

This ebook will share insights on TDM and its advantages.

We'll also discuss the challenges that teams face and
strategies to overcome them.

3
What is Test Data
Management?
Test data management is a process that deals with sourcing, managing, and delivering high-quality, compliant test data to
teams as and when required.

Today, your app adoption depends on how delightfully a customer interacts with it and how seamlessly he experiences it.
Most apps lose 95% of their audience within the first three months. And 67% of users hold application quality responsible for
their churn. It becomes the onus of QA teams to ensure that the higher quality standards are met. TDM makes it possible.

Before we delve deeper into TDM, let's first understand what test data is. Simply put – any data earmarked for testing
purposes comes under the scope of test data. Broadly, test data is classified as:

Static data
This is the data that doesn't change after being recorded. Data points such as names and
addresses are not considered dynamic. Most static data comprise non-sensitive information, but
it can also include banking details and other credentials in some cases.

Dynamic data
Test data that is constantly evolving and needs to be updated regularly is called dynamic data. Example:
information such as banking and transaction history. Since dynamic data is the most sensitive, ensuring
adequate storage and security is essential.

Based on the use cases and type of test, both static and dynamic data are used together. This data
needs to be identified, sourced, and brought in from different databases while maintaining its
integrity. It also needs to be securely stored and managed to avoid regulatory issues.

This is where test data management helps. TDM is a collection of processes that ensures
high-quality data is always available to the right requestor at the right time. It deals with planning,
designing, sourcing, storing, securing, and retrieving test data promptly. With TDM, organizations
can ensure that testers always have access to quality data in the required formats and the right
quantities to fulfill their testing requirements.

Since handling production data can be challenging due to its sensitivity and volume, many
companies have also integrated data synthesis and obfuscation into their TDM practices.

4
Why is Test
Data Management
Necessary?
Test data management has become a key focus of industries that regularly deal with large amounts of sensitive data. There
are several reasons for this rising interest. From production defects to regulatory non-compliance, companies worldwide
have faced issues due to a lack of proper test data management.

TDM introduces a structured approach to testing, enabling experts to test across all possible business scenarios. This
eventually leads to better application quality and customer satisfaction.

Here are some of the challenges that TDM can help

you overcome:

Slow, manual test environment provisioning

Without TDM, software development teams depend on a manual data
provisioning process that queues up tickets. Fulfilling each request can
take a long time when there is no direct access to ready-made test
data. This inadvertently stretches the testing cycle slowing down the
pace of delivery.

Lack of high-fidelity data

TDM ensures that quality data is always at hand. Without TDM,
testers are forced to work with stale copies of data because refreshing
the environment on demand takes up extra time and cost. Working
with stale data doesn't just put product quality at risk; it can also lead
to cybersecurity issues.

Friction due to necessary data obfuscation

The GDPR has made data obfuscation and masking a compulsory
practice for all companies working with EU customers. EU members
will likely implement the regulations in other countries where they
operate. Such attempts may lead to friction, as without TDM, data
masking can become an expensive overhead.

Increased Storage Cost

When organizations use full-size copies of production data for testing
purposes, test data storage costs are high. The costs increase
exponentially when the production environments grow, leading to high
storage and license costs.

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What are the six
Crucial Aspects of Test
Data Management?
The six crucial aspects of TDM are as follows.

1. Analysis of test data

requirements 2. Obfuscation and masking
of data
Before sourcing or generating data, you need to Regulatory laws like GDPR require organizations to
document the exact type and format of data required. securely hide sensitive information from malicious actors.
Then perform an end-to-end analysis of the application, Obfuscation techniques such as masking and encryption
the platform, the software, and the test cases to zero in are used to secure sensitive data that can potentially be
on the exact data requirements. misused. This includes banking details, medical history,
and more.

3. Subsetting of
data 4. Generation of required
data
Testers slice the test data into usable subsets to Handling production data can be an expensive affair.
reduce the amount of data that needs to be stored. Most organizations now prefer generating representative
This helps control storage and security costs during or mock data that mimics the production values. The test
the data cloning process. data should get you as close to the original user
environment as possible.

5. Delivery of
data 6. Storage and maintenance
of data
In complex test environments, including CI/CD, All the test data should be stored in a single repository
obfuscated and subsetted synthesized data must be for easy access and maintenance. Proper data refreshing
delivered to the testing and QA teams in a reliable, fast, is a significant part of its upkeep to keep redundancy and
and seamless manner. Successful test data delivery obsolescence at bay. Lastly, if the data is maintained
guarantees timely and more accurate tests, resulting in correctly, it can be reused for more tests down the line,
better quality applications. bringing down overall costs further.

6
What are the Advantages
of Test Data Management?
An IBM case study stated that a major US insurance company was spending $3 million on data management for every
$14 million worth of software delivery. After implementing an evaluative test data management process, the company
saved more than $400,000 annually.

The benefits of test data management are more far-reaching than just cost benefits. It condenses the entire development
cycle, improves testing results, and helps put out a better product.

Here are some of the most significant advantages that companies can benefit from.

Better test coverage

With TDM, you can test all the possible scenarios in testing at a faster
rate. This provides unmatched visibility across the entire testing process
with better defect detection.

Increased cost savings

Testers can identify and correct defects much earlier in the cycle with
better quality data on demand. Bug-fixing later in the cycle, especially
after release, can cost up to 640x more. Additionally, a rigorous TDM
process reduces the amount of test data stored, bringing down
storage charges.

Improved customer satisfaction

Your customers want a bug-free application that works as expected
and meets all business requirements. Better test data coverage and the
ability to find more bugs faster leads to a product that runs smoothly.

Faster time-to-market
First-to-market is critical in deciding which companies win in today's
business. Test automation and intelligent test data management can
make testing much faster and more efficient, expediting your
time-to-market.

7
How to Build a Test
Data Management
Strategy?
The successful implementation of TDM in your organization can erase the gap between data requirements and the availability
of data at hand. You must devise a clear strategy to ensure your testers can access the correct data on demand, which will
form the groundwork on which you can build your TDM processes.

1. Define the system

Testing teams should map all the data assets and connect them via information supply chains, and these
scenarios should cover all possible situations. Since the data needs no defined parameters in TDM, only the
system parameters must be determined.

2. Integrate all the data silos

The required data might not be in one single repository in the beginning. When there are several different data
silos, systems, and sources, teams need to integrate them using a management tool.

3. Refresh and sync test data

The test data will be reused in many cases - when bugs are found and corrected, during regression testing,
etc. For that to happen seamlessly, your system must be adaptable, easy to sync, and capable of refreshing
data whenever needed.

4. Protect all the test data

Data privacy and security are at the top of all data management concerns. No company wants to be caught in
a regulatory impasse. Your strategy must account for all compliance and security requirements.

5. Synthesize data when required

Often, using production values isn't viable. In this case, your system must be able to generate mock data based
on real values while maintaining referential integrity across all systems.

6. Provision data to all the systems and environments

This is the last part of your strategy. Once you generate, mask, and secure the data, you should move it to the
test environments. Most organizations work with multiple platforms and systems - test data should be able to
move from one environment to the next seamlessly.

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How Does Avo's Intelligent Test
Data Management (iTDM) Solution
Improve Your Testing?
Software development companies face a tough choice – either continue paying the rising costs of poor data
management practices or adopt a more proactive solution. Avo's Intelligent Test Data Management solution helps
make the entire process more cost-efficient by providing reliable representative data that mimics your production
environment.

iTDM empowers QA teams with synthetic data that is easily accessible and compliant with the strictest norms.
Besides fast-forwarding the time-to-market by streamlining and expediting application delivery, iTDM identifies
non-compliant data in non-production environments. iTDM helps comply with on-demand and continually evolving
configurable data privacy regulations.

Avo's iTDM helps you build high-quality applications at a faster pace and with confidence.

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