Tags: environment testing
Inspiration: Nat Pryce
EnvironmentalTest
An environment test verifies that the environment into which you are about to deploy an application is in the state that you expect: that expected directories exist; that files are readable when running under service accounts; that database logins are set up; that stored procedures have been loaded into the database; etc. etc. Environment tests are also used to verify that the development environment accurately reflects the production environment.
The application is structured as a package of core services, domain model, data mapping layer, etc. that are used by multiple client packages. The clients include the deployed executables, some development tools for ad-hoc exploratory testing, the unit tests, the integration tests and now the environment tests.
Those environment tests have already saved my bacon more than once. At deploy time they detected that the application's login had not been set up correctly in the production database. Later, while helping with the install of another application, they detected that the install had deleted registry entries used by COM objects shared between the two applications. Both problems were easy to fix because they were detected by the environment tests without having to actually run the application in the live environment.
From Nat Pryce, http://nat.truemesh.com/archives/000515.html
Last published: Thursday 1st April 2010
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