CAST Test Environment & Configuration Management Flashcards

What challenge does environment 'configuration drift' present in software testing?

Answer: Environments diverge from their intended state, causing inconsistent and unreliable test results

Configuration drift occurs when environments change incrementally without tracking, leading to inconsistencies that cause false passes or failures.

Which approach best supports consistent and repeatable test environment provisioning?

Answer: Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tools that define environments in version-controlled scripts

Infrastructure as Code ensures environments are provisioned consistently using version-controlled scripts, eliminating manual configuration errors.

What is the role of a test environment inventory?

Answer: A catalog of all test environments, their configurations, ownership, and status

A test environment inventory documents all available environments, their configurations, and current status to support scheduling and conflict resolution.

In continuous integration (CI) pipelines, test environments are typically:

Answer: Automatically spun up and torn down as part of the pipeline

CI pipelines automate environment provisioning and teardown to ensure each build is tested in a clean, consistent state.

What is the significance of using a 'clean' test environment for each test run?

Answer: It eliminates residual state from previous tests, ensuring results are independent and reliable

A clean environment removes residual data or state from prior runs, preventing test pollution and ensuring each run yields independent results.

Which of the following best describes 'environment parity' in software testing?

Answer: Ensuring test and production environments are as similar as possible to maximize test validity

Environment parity minimizes differences between test and production environments so that test results accurately predict production behavior.