In the era  of Digital computing organizations are able to compute, process, analyze and derive  maximum  value  from both  structured  and unstructured data.However in the rush of gaining more insights, often Data Privacy concerns are being overlooked.More then 9 billion personal records  have  been  stolen in last  5 years.Data  breaches  not  only  costs  money  but also keeps organisations  reputation  at  stake.Data is  core  of  any project  and  testing  being  the  heart of  SDLC, but  Test Data Management has  been given least  importance.Research  shows  that Data Quality is  the  primary reason for  overrunning  project cost.Bad Data costs  U.S. $ 3 Trillion per  year.

Does  these  facts  just  appear  like  a mere figure  to  you ? Ask  these  questions  to check whether your  Project  is  need  of TDM services.

These questions will serve as ready reckoner. Some thing similar to a thermometer, which will be able to help you know if there really is a need for investing in Test Data Management solutions/resources etc.

If your answer to these questions are Yes, give a Red. If you do not know the answer give a Yellow or Amber and if the answer is a NO give a green.

• Does  Testers tend  to spend  more time on Data  creation rather than testing the application?
• Does  your  Defect  report has  major  chunk of defects  classified  as  “Data Issue Defects”?
• Are  you very  often missing  your  testing  deadlines  due  to  delay  in  Test Data refresh activity?
• Does  your  Non-Production environments  have  huge  volume  of data  and  is hindering performance?
• Do you  still have  older Project release data  which is no more  required but  still lying  in the system and consuming space?
• Creation of  Test  Data  consumes  lot  of  time.Do  you  have  a strategy in place to  reuse already  generated Test Data  in your  subsequent releases?
• Does  your Non Production  environments have untreated PII(Personal  Identifiable Information)   and PHI  fields.

A sample temperature sheet is shown below.

 

It is extremely easy to find out your TDM need.

Test Data  Management  can be  a  one stop solution  for all  the  above  mentioned  problems. TDM  can help  you in creating  right sized and realistic data along with  securing  sensitive  data thus  helping  your  organization to be  compliant  to  regulatory compliance like HIPPA,GDPR,SOX  etc.

Agile Testing Alliance offers TDM Solutions including TDM Trainings and certifications.

 

Do let us know if you are interested in being a CP-TDM (Certified Professional – Test Data Management).

Write to ATAIndia@AgileTestingAlliance.org