Almost any application or software system manages data. It is hard to imagine test automation that is not affected by this fact. There are many differenct approaches how to prepare system under test, providing predefined test data: use application UI, invoke API methods, run business logic directly, access DB from test scenarios, etc. In this talk we will review most of existing approaches, starting from the easiest and the most popular ones and finishing with really tricky ways to manage your test data for large distributed systems. There is no ideal solution for every case or silver bullet, but I hope your toolset will become wider after visiting this talk.

1. Bro, manage your test data
like a pro!
Mikalai Alimenkou
@xpinjection
http://xpinjection.com

4. https://qaguild-slack.herokuapp.com

5. Test
Data
Application
Driver
Test
Logic
Test components

6. Data independency as performance driver
• Most dependencies are data related
• Dependent tests = no parallel execution
• Data should be test specific with no reuse
• Use small focused datasets

7. #1. Prepare test data using UI
SYSTEM
DB
QUEUE
UI
API
EXTERNAL
SERVICES
API CONTRACTS
#1. UI

8. Easiest approach to start with
Blackbox solution
Clear and simple
Unstable
Too long
Failures chaining

9. Data Registry

10. #2. Data insertion via API
SYSTEM
DB
QUEUE
UI
API
EXTERNAL
SERVICES
API CONTRACTS
#2. API

11. Reuse existing API for tests
Data oriented
Much quicker
Require clear API
Greybox
Coding skills
Existing tools

12. #3. SQL for direct data insertion to DB
SYSTEM
DB
QUEUE
UI
API
EXTERNAL
SERVICES
API CONTRACTS
#3. SQL

13. Unit/integration tests

14. Use internal system knowledge
Flexibility
Quickest way
Whitebox
Support and sync
Too verbose
Direct data access
Caching

15. #4. Datasets with optional commit
SYSTEM
DB
QUEUE
UI
API
EXTERNAL
SERVICES
API CONTRACTS
#4. DBUnit

16. Unit/integration tests

17. API/System level tests

18. Additional level of data abstraction
Great tools around DBUnit
Suitable format
Whitebox
Support and sync
Small datasets
Caching
Flexible constraints

19. #5. Versioned DUMPs
SYSTEM
DB
QUEUE
UI
API
EXTERNAL
SERVICES
API CONTRACTS
#5. DUMPs

20. Support DUMPs for different suites
/serviceA/dump/smoke/v50/data.tar.gz
/serviceA/dump/smoke/v51/data.tar.gz
/serviceA/schema/v51/db.jar
/serviceA/dump/regression/v50/data.tar.gz
/serviceA/dump/regression/v51/data.tar.gz

21. Version your test data with schema
Direct data access
Quick
Unclear
Required skills
DUMP preparation via UI
Infrastructure support
Artifact repository

22. DB Object Pools
• DB instance
• Heavy domain objects
• Available data roots

23. #6. Production data DUMP
SYSTEM
DB
QUEUE
UI
API
EXTERNAL
SERVICES
API CONTRACTS
#6. LIVE DATA

24. Real data is always better for testing
Live data
No preparation
Large
Permissions
More realistic cases
Security

27. @xpinjection
http://xpinjection.com
mikalai.alimenkou@xpinjection.com