How to configure the software test environment

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Configuring the test environment is an important stage in the test implementation. Whether the test environment is suitable or not seriously affects the authenticity and correctness of the test results. The test environment includes the hardware environment and software environment. The hardware environment refers to the environment consisting of necessary servers, clients, network connection devices, Printers/scanners, and other auxiliary hardware devices; software environment refers to the environment consisting of the operating system, database, and other application software when the tested software is running. In actual testing, the software environment can be divided into the main testing environment and the auxiliary testing environment. The main test environment is the main environment for testing most indicators such as software functions, security and reliability, performance, and ease of use. In general, the configuration of the primary test environment follows the following principles:

1. meets the minimum requirements for software operation. The test environment must ensure that the software can run normally.

2. Select a popular operating system and software platform. For example, if a software claim to support "Windows9x/ME/NT Workstation/2000 Professional" and "MS Office 97/2000/XP ", we generally use popular environments such as Windows 2000 Professional + MS Office 2000.

3. Create a relatively simple and independent test environment. In addition to the operating system, only software necessary for running and testing is installed on the testing machine to prevent unrelated software from affecting the testing implementation.

4. Non-toxic environment. Use valid genuine anti-virus software to check the software environment to ensure that there is no virus in the testing environment.

The auxiliary test environment is often used to meet different test requirements or special test items:

Compatibility testing: You can select some typical operating systems and common application software to verify the installation and uninstallation of the software and its main functions within the scope that meets the software operation requirements.

Test the simulated real environment: some software, especially the commercial software for the public, often need to evaluate the performance in the real environment during testing. For example, when testing the scanning speed of anti-virus software, the ratio of different types of files on the hard disk should be as close as possible to the real environment, so that the tested data has practical significance.

Horizontal comparison test: a fully consistent test environment is cloned using the auxiliary test environment to ensure equal comparison between the tested software.