The relational database management systems can contain a large amount of critical data which is required to be updated in the regular basis through different applications. If a regression test can run throughout the whole system, the data quality can be ensured with a proper security.
Purpose of Testing: Before doing the test, you need to know the purpose of database testing.
Corporate Asset: As data can be considered as the important corporate asset, the effective testing procedure will surely validate the data quality. According to a survey in the year 2006, 96% of the respondents agreed that the data is a corporate asset. Among them only 40 % uses the test suite for the data validation.
Functionality Implementation: The remote DBA experts – remotedba.com can easily implement the business functionality in the relational database systems. There can be various critical business functionality and they can be implemented after the testing. According to a survey, 63.7% respondents said that their industries have gone through the tests.
Insufficient Approaches: The present approaches with the database schemas may not be sufficient in nature. Here comes the need of regression test within the test suite.
Compact Feedback: The test can provide with a concrete feedback and helps in identifying all the defects very easily.
Support Development: The development process, specifically the database refactoring is supported by running the regression test suite.
What to Test? After knowing all the purposes, you need to be aware of all the data that needs testing. The black box testing at the interface can perform the test on all the incoming data values, outgoing data values and the O/R mappings. Now, the white box testing can take place within the database. It includes the referential integrity, existence tests, data invariants in single column or various columns.
When to Test? You can run the test before fulfilling all the production codes for your database. After adding the test, you need to run the test suite along with all the subsets in a moderate speed. You can then update all the functional codes for passing the new test in the suite. After that you can run the test again. If your update fails, you can keep on updating and follow a retest method until the test is passed. You can go to the next step only when you pass the first stage TFD (Test First Development). The Test Driven Development or TDD is a process which combines the refactoring and the TFD method. The application code and the database schema can work simultaneously through the TDD method.
How to Test? The database testing can be done by the help of database sandboxes. You are required to set up the strategies and compare the database tests in the sandboxes. You can consider the database testing tools for testing in the advanced stages.
Set Up The Test While setting up the test, you are required to follow some common strategies:
Fresh Start: This process includes the rebuilding process of the database. The pre-production test sandboxes can be initiated for the test run.
Data Re-initialization: The source data can be re-initialized by removing all the previous data. This method can also be successful if the updates can be reset to all the data values. The first method is safer and can work faster if there is huge amount of data.
To perform all the tests, various testing tools are available in the market. Some of them are Unit testing tools, Test data generator, Test Data management, Data privacy tools etc. The in-memory database can be used for a smooth regression testing and the novice group of developers can be trained for taking the database testing successfully.
Author Bio: Mark Hayden is a well known database expert and works with remote DBA experts. He is also a passionate blogger who is sharing his suggestions on the regression testing method for the relational database. Also to know more about DBA plans and services click here.
