On demand data generation
Create rich data from visual models and self-service forms.
Test Data Automation offers an intuitive, automated approach to synthetic test data generation, creating generation jobs that can be re-used from self-service forms and model-based test design.
Siloed Data Provisioning Undermines Delivery Speed and Quality
Testing and development is only as fast and accurate as the data that feeds it. Delivery teams are frequently expected to release to production in days or weeks, but slow and siloed data provisioning can take weeks or months. Testers and developers wait idly for cumbersome production data to be copied to test environments, before spending more time looking for the exact data combinations they need. Yet, the repetitive data contains only a fraction of the data needed to test complex systems rigorously, while out-of-date test data causes time-consuming test failures. Cross-team constraints push testing ever-later, so that code is released to production at the risk of damaging bugs. Iterative development instead requires continuous testing and both testing and development requires continuous data access.
Complete data, available on tap throughout every sprint
Test Data Automation provides an automated, intuitive approach to complex data generation, scanning databases to produce high-speed data generation workflows and fill-in-the-blanks style configuration spreadsheet. Business language, self-service web forms allow BAs, testers and developers to re-use the data generation on demand, populating accurately defined data sets into test environments in a few clicks. Having comprehensive data available at the start and throughout every iteration helps every stakeholder across the SDLC delivery quality systems earlier and at less cost:
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Testers, Developers, Business Analysts and Automation Engineers understand the exact data fed into test and development environments, making informed decisions based on time and risk.
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Developers have access to data for coding rapid prototypes and system components from day one. They no longer wait for integrated components and data to become available, and enjoy parallel, unconstrained access to data. They can build and test continuously, gaining constant feedback and fixing bugs when they are quickest and easiest to remediate.
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QA enjoy on tap access to a complete set of data combinations, populated automatically into the right test environments. Model-based data generation produces consistent data journeys to test every modelled scenario, detecting bugs before they can damage production releases.
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Testers and developers no longer waste time hunting for rare or interesting data combinations, using self-service forms and logical models to feed exact combinations into test environments. They can measure the exact impact of each test case on complex systems, while avoiding false negatives created by inconsistent test data.
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Testers and automation engineers have sufficient volumes of high variety test data, executing every automated test and avoiding the delays created when one test consumes another’s data. Embedded re-usable data generation jobs in automated test execution and CI/CD pipelines allocates data to tests “just in time”, providing accurate data without data provisioning bottleneck.
Intuitive, automated test data generation
Watch this demo of on demand data generation for a SQL Server HR database to see how:
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VIP automatically generates a workflow for generating database into a given database, producing an easy-to-use Excel configuration sheet for parameterising generation jobs.
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Specifying variables using the fill-in-the-blanks spreadsheet parameterises the high-speed VIP workflow, generating data directly to databases, or via APIs, files and the front-end.
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The Test Data Catalogue in Test Modeller converts the configuration spreadsheet into self-service forms, allowing testers and developers to generate data in parallel and on demand.
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The web-based data requests form show only the parameters that matter to “Data Requestors”, using user-friendly checkboxes, dropdowns and fields to request exactly the data they need.
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Hitting “play” from the self-service web portal generates the requested data sets on demand, providing on tap access to data without the bottlenecks of data provisioning.
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Exporting the self-service forms automatically to Excel spreadsheets allows testers and developers to add scenarios and rapidly submit repeat requests from re-usable spreadsheets.
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Test Modeller automatically converts data configuration spreadsheets into logical data models, applying automated algorithms to create a complete spread of data combinations.
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The visual flowcharts make it quick and easy to add new data scenarios, automatically generating a rich set of data to drive rigorous testing and detect bugs pre-production.
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Re-usable rules, constraints and coverage profiles generate tightly defined data sets from the models on demand, feeding consistent data journeys into systems for end-to-end testing.
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Automating and maintaining test data from visual models makes it quick and easy to produce regression tests data, testing complex systems fully in short iterations.
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Re-usable test data generations are easily embedded in CI/CD pipelines via batch scripts, generating comprehensive data on-the-fly during test execution.