Proven Strategy for Test Data Management

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According to SnapLogic research report 2020, “The State of Data Management – Why Data Warehouse Projects Fail,” many businesses are not entirely satisfied with the data management, output, and storage initiatives. The research is suggestive that many business leaders are striving to manage the multiplying number of incoherent apps & data sources, obsolete legacy systems, and manual & intricate data which is hampering growth and costing millions of dollars.

The research was conducted across 500 US and UK based IT decision-makers (ITDMs) to figure out why data management processes fail. It found that every regular company uses 115 different apps and data sources, but almost 49 percent of them are disconnected and siloed from each other. Furthermore:

• 83 percent of organizations are not satisfied with the data management and data warehousing programs.
• 89 percent ITDMs are worried that various data silos and disconnected apps are curbing their success.
• ITDMs verified they are losing more than $1 million every year due to inadequate data management.
• 76 percent of respondents revealed that their enterprises have expanded their data budgets.
• 88 percent ITDMs undergo challenges while loading data into data warehouses, due to legacy technology (49%), complicated data formats (44%), data silos (40%), and data access issues (40%).

Regarding the above-stated facts, the organizations are addressing more data management problems than before the pandemic. Despite years of struggle to develop flawless data management approaches, several businesses are still challenged by data vulnerabilities.

Competition in the corporate marketplace is growing quite rapidly. Therefore, investing in different business areas has become more important than ever. Particularly, investments in testing are critical for test data management.

Here is an effective strategy to develop data management business cases in terms of meeting your business objectives. Take notes and see if your test data management game is up or down. Here it is:

Focus on Case from the Beginning

Test data management tools (TDM) or test case management tools can bring numerous business-critical advantages for the entire organization. Therefore, you must focus on the business case test management from the very beginning. This way can achieve more stock-up from the key C-level suites across the organization.

Know Your Methodology and Scope

After determining the business case, it is most important to find a suitable approach for data management. You should have a clarity of thought and process about the methodology you are going to pick and follow throughout. It is necessary that you set one or more paths as a rule of thumb even if the case types are not specified. Enough homework done to define a methodology or approach can increase the work pace and decrease time consumption. Moreover, your data management would not suffer in the long run due to a pre-developed approach and vision.

Know and Engage with Your Stakeholders

Despite establishing an insightful approach for TDM cases, you will still require the involvement and efficiency of QA teams and other teams from various departments to collaborate in the entire data management activities. Thus, other professionals in your company become stakeholders or important components in your TDM strategy. The agility integrated into the TDM approach allows team members to participate in the overall decision-making process for the implementation of the planned data management strategy.

Perform Cost-Benefit Evaluation

As you progress, the number of stakeholders increases in the TDM strategy, making working together complicated in nature requiring thorough cost-benefit analysis. Different crucial factors or metrics such as time to market, time to value, total output, yield generation, number of resources & costs required/involved, etc. are supposed to be taken critically before finalizing the process and its phases. Because the ability to read between lines and make decisions accordingly is the key to successful data management.

Testing for the Triumph

After connecting the dots, you need to plan and execute tailored testing and QA practice. Check the prerequisites of the TDM strategy and select the suitable practices to execute thorough and productive testing throughout. A successful test run will ensure the success of the entire project and ultimately TDM strategy. Therefore, it is imperative to stay beyond vigilant while executing testing & integrating test management tools like Kualitee on business cases for achieving immaculate and error-free data management.

Bottom Line

In the end, you must ensure that your testing strategies and practices align with business objectives. It is the only way to ensure that all key players are satisfied with your work and skills. And most importantly, to keep the data well-managed and protected through any pandemic or situation of emergency.