Types of Environments in the Software Lifecycle

1. Overview

Testing helps to verify that software functions as intended and meets the required quality standards. To aid this process, there are different test environments, each of them serving a specific testing purpose.

In this tutorial, we’ll explore the primary types of test environments and understand how they contribute to the development of software.

2. Development Environment

The development environment is where developers write and test code, typically, on a local machine. Most, if not all, software development processes involve working in a team. Therefore, the development environment serves as the initial stage of the software development process and enables developers to create, modify, and debug their code before integrating it with the work of other team members.

2.1. Purpose and Characteristics

The major purpose of the development environment is to provide developers with an isolated workspace where they can write, test, and debug their code without recourse to the other team members’ code or the overall project. In this case, each developer has a personal setup which typically includes the tools, frameworks, and dependencies they need for the project. Moreover, this environment is where code changes and unit testing frequently take place.

While security here isn’t usually paramount, it’s a good idea to make sure even separate environments are relatively secure.

In the development environment, developers have the freedom to experiment with different approaches, try out new libraries or frameworks, and quickly iterate on their code. In other words, here, a developer ensures that their individual components or modules function as expected.

2.2. Local Development Setup

To set up a local development environment, developers need to configure their machines with the required software and tools. This may include installing the needed programming language tools, integrated development environments (IDEs), version control systems, and any other project-specific dependencies or libraries.

For instance, if a developer is working on a Web application, they might install a code editor like Visual Studio Code. Also, a local Web server like Apache or Nginx might aid local deployment. Programming languages and frameworks such as JavaScript, Node.js, or Ruby on Rails may be installed. A developer may also set up a local database server like PostgreSQL to store and retrieve data during development.

2.3. Version Control and Collaboration

Version control systems (VCS) ensure that developers can manage code changes and facilitate collaborations among themselves in the development environment. Popular VCS tools like Git usually make it easier for developers to track changes to their codebase, create branches for new features or bug fixes, and merge their changes with the main codebase when ready.

When working on a project, developers create a local copy of the codebase from a central repository. They can then make changes to their local copy. This is done by committing those changes and pushing them back to the central repository. Thus, the process enables multiple developers to work on the same codebase simultaneously without conflicting with each other’s changes.

In addition, version control also provides a way to create branches for specific features or bug fixes. This way, the developer can isolate their changes and ensure that their work doesn’t interfere with the main codebase until someone has tested and reviewed it. Once a fix is complete, developers can create a pull request to merge their changes back into the main branch.

Code reviews further promote collaboration. Simply, this is a situation where other team members review and provide feedback on the changes made by a developer before merging them. As a result, the quality and integrity of the codebase is maintained.

3. Integration Environment

The integration environment is where code changes from multiple developers are combined and tested together to ensure proper integration and compatibility. Thus, it helps identify and resolve any integration issues before the codes move to more advanced testing stages.

3.1. Purpose and Characteristics

The integration environment serves as a staging area where code from various development branches, often produced in local environments, is merged and tested as a cohesive unit.

Unlike the development environment, the integration environment aims to validate the interaction and compatibility between different parts of the system. It ensures that code changes made by one developer don’t break the functionality created by another developer.

In this case, security is very important, as integration environments often hold all of the source code for a given product.

We can say the integration environment mirrors the production environment more closely than the development environment. This is so because it may include additional components that aren’t present in the local development setup. Testing here is often more realistic and helps uncover issues that may arise when the code is deployed to production.

3.2. Continuous Integration (CI) Pipelines

Code commits often trigger CI pipelines and thus streamline the integration process. It automatically pulls the latest code, builds the application, and runs a series of automated tests to ensure that the code changes don’t break existing functionality.

CI pipelines typically include multiple steps:

1. code checkout: retrieve the latest code from the central repository
2. dependency installation: install any required dependencies or libraries based on the project’s configuration
3. build: compile the application generating executable files
4. unit tests: run automated unit tests to verify the individual components or modules
5. integration tests: execute automated integration tests to validate the interaction between different parts of the system
6. code quality checks: perform additional checks such as static code analysis or linting
7. reporting: generates reports and notifications based on the results of the build and tests

If any step in the CI pipeline fails, the system typically notifies the development team immediately. Thus, an investigation can take place to fix the issue, reducing the risk of introducing further bugs into the main codebase.

3.3. Automated Testing and Builds

Automated testing involves writing and executing automated tests to verify the functionality, performance, and reliability of the integrated codebase. Further, it helps catch regressions, ensure code quality, and provide confidence in the stability of the software.

There are different types of automated tests:

• unit tests
• integration tests
• functional tests
• performance tests

Notably, functional tests verify the end-to-end functionality of the system from a user’s perspective and performance tests assess the system’s performance under various load conditions, measuring response times, throughput, and resource utilization.

Build automation tools such as Jenkins, Travis CI, or CircleCI are common tools for compiling code, packaging it into binaries, libraries, or container images, and preparing it for deployment to subsequent environments. They also enable continuous delivery practices where we can automatically deploy the build artifacts to staging or production environments based on certain criteria.

4. Staging Environment

The staging environment is a pre-production context that closely mirrors the production environment in terms of configuration, infrastructure, and data. It serves as a final testing ground before deploying the software to production.

4.1. Purpose and Characteristics

The primary purpose of the staging environment is to provide a simulation of the production environment. This enables thorough testing and validation of the software as it functions when deployed before it reaches end-users. It’s designed to catch any issues or inconsistencies that may have been missed in previous testing stages and ensure that the software is ready for deployment.

Here, security should match the final deployment environment as closely as possible to ensure no configuration or restriction breaks the product.

The staging environment needs to be as similar to the production environment as possible:

• hardware
• software
• network configuration
• data

This means that we need to populate the staging environment with data that closely resembles the data in the production environment. This data can be a subset of production data or anonymized data that preserves the relationships of the original data.

4.2. User Acceptance Testing (UAT)

User acceptance testing (UAT) takes place in the staging environment. It’s also called end-user testing and involves testing of the software by the intended audience. In this case, a select number of the end-users test the software’s features and functionalities to ensure that they work as expected and align with the end-user expectations.

During UAT, end-users follow test scripts or scenarios that guide them through various workflows of the software. They document any issues they encounter and provide feedback to the development team. The development team then addresses the problems identified and incorporates the necessary fixes. This process reduces the risk of deploying software that doesn’t meet user requirements or has significant usability issues.

5. Production Environment

This is the final stage where we deploy the software and make it available to all end-users. It’s often called the live environment and hosts the fully functional and stable version of the software.

5.1. Purpose and Characteristics

Literally, the production environment provides the software to its intended users and delivers the expected functionality and performance. Here, real users access and use the software therefore generating real data and interactions. Needless to say, we have to protect and manage the data we generate in the production environment securely.

Furthermore, the production environment is expected to have high availability. This means that the software should be accessible and functional for users at all times. Downtime or interruptions in this environment can have a significant business impact and we should therefore minimize it.

5.2. Deployment Strategies

There are different deployment strategies based on the specific requirements and characteristics of the software:

1. Blue-Green Deployment: In this strategy, we set up two identical production environments (Blue and Green). We deploy the new version of the software to the Green environment while the current version remains active in the Blue environment. Once the Green environment is thoroughly tested, traffic is switched from Blue to Green making the new version live. If any issues arise, we can quickly switch the traffic back to the Blue environment.
2. Canary Deployment: This involves initially releasing the new version of the software to a small subset of users. This subset is known as the canary group. They represent a small percentage of the total user base. Then, we monitor the new version closely for any issues. If the canary deployment proves stable, we gradually roll out the new version to the rest of the users.
3. Rolling Update: This involves gradually deploying the new version of the software to subsets of servers or instances in the production environment. We perform the deployment in batches where we update a portion of the servers at a time. If we detect issues during the rolling update, we can pause the deployment or roll back to the previous version.
4. Feature Toggle: This is also known as feature flags and it works by selectively enabling or disabling specific features in the production environment. With this strategy, we can deploy new features to production but hide or make them inactive for most users. We can then gradually enable the features for subsets of users or based on certain conditions.

Notably, the choice of deployment strategy depends on many factors including the size and complexity of the software.

6. Conclusion

In this article, we explored the different types of test environments and their roles in the software development process. We started with the development environment where developers write and test code locally. Then, we moved on to the integration environment where code from multiple developers is combined and tested for compatibility. The staging environment provided a setting for final testing and user acceptance. Finally, we discussed the production environment where we deploy the software and make it available to end users.