120+ projects. 1 Test Environment. This is the kind of constraint that QA teams work with today. Organizations, in a bid to stay competitive, are constantly implementing newer systems and launching newer products. What this means is multiple IT projects need to be executed simultaneously to achieve business objectives. Consequently there are multiple projects which need to be tested by the QA team. What doesn’t change is the number of test environments available to the QA team: 1. Such a situation, if not managed efficiently, can lead to conflicts in sharing of resources, which adversely impact quality or timelines, or worse still, both.

ABN AMRO and Infosys too faced similar challenges a couple of years back. Realizing the key to the solving the problem laid in developing an effective test environment management mechanism and not in opting for more test environments or expensive tools, the team set about developing a solution in house. The following presentation, based on actual experiences, not only discusses the need to manage test environments effectively but also the important elements required to build an effective solution:

1. Dynamic test planning based on dependencies.
2. Early conflict detection to reschedule effectively.
3. Customizable reporting for various levels of management to quicken and improve decision making process.

Such a solution which allows effective prioritization and comprehensive overview of all projects reduces delays in projects due to conflicts associated with test environment by up to 70%. For all organizations this is a feat worth emulating.