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Production Testing Guide For Safely Experimenting with New Features
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How to Use a Staging Environment to Optimize Your Development Process
TL;DR:
- Staging environments are crucial for testing new code changes before deployment.
- Key tests to run in staging include unit testing, regression testing, integration testing, load testing, and chaos testing.
- Best practices for using staging environments include regular updates, prioritizing the right tests, monitoring performance, and clear communication/documentation.
- Staging is where you validate functionality, integration, and performance before testing in production.
- Eppo integrates into staging environments to streamline experimentation and testing processes.
Quality assurance tests are absolutely necessary before rolling out new code changes, but mimicking real world scenarios to make sure your new application will function properly under a wide variety of conditions can be a bit tricky. A staging environment offers development teams a critical checkpoint between development and production to help catch issues before they reach end users.
In this blog, you’ll learn:
- The role of a staging environment in the software development lifecycle.
- Key tests to run in staging to catch critical issues early.
- How tools like Eppo simplify staging environments for smoother releases and experimentation.
What Is a Staging Environment?
A staging environment is essentially a mirror image of your production environment. It’s set up to test and validate the software before it’s deployed to actual users. The staging environment mimics your production system’s configurations, databases, hardware, and other components to simulate how your software will perform at scale in the real world. It’s designed to replicate every detail of the live environment, providing an accurate preview of how the code will behave once it’s released.
Where do Staging Environments Fit Into the Software Development Lifecycle?
Staging environments are critical during the final testing phases of the development lifecycle.
After your code passes unit tests and integration tests in the development environment, the staging environment is up next. It provides an additional layer of validation before the software is pushed to production. DevOps and QA teams use staging to make sure that the code works as expected in an environment that closely mirrors the production system and that all key features perform without any need for some last minute debugging efforts.
By the time code reaches the staging environment, it should be stable and ready for comprehensive pre-production regression testing to ensure new code hasn’t broken existing functionality and User Acceptance Testing (UAT) to validate that the software meets the business requirements and user expectations before being rolled out to a broader audience.
By providing this pre-production testing ground, the staging site makes it easier to catch any issues that may otherwise slip into production and affect the user experience.
Let’s Take a Look at the Types of Tests You Should Run in a Staging Environment
Unit Testing
Unit testing is the process of testing individual components or modules of your software. Before integrating various pieces of the system, unit testing helps catch errors early by isolating and evaluating each component in a controlled environment. This is an important step for confirming that each unit of code functions as intended and doesn't cause issues once combined with other parts of the application.
Regression Testing
Regression testing is designed so that new features, bug fixes, or updates don't break any existing functionality within your application. As your codebase grows and evolves, regression testing helps catch unintended side effects from recent changes. Running regression tests in a staging environment ensures that your app remains stable and reliable and prevents issues from slipping through the cracks before your final push to production.
Integration Testing
Integration testing verifies that different software modules, components, or third-party services are compatible with each other. In a staging environment, you’ll want to check APIs, database connections, and internal services for seamless integration. These tests simulate the actual interaction between systems and help uncover integration issues that may not be obvious in isolated testing environments.
Load Testing
Load testing simulates high levels of traffic or usage patterns to see how well your application performs under stress. This step helps identify any performance bottlenecks and shows you if the system can handle expected (and unexpected) traffic spikes.
Chaos Testing
Chaos testing involves intentionally introducing failures or disruptions into your system to test its resilience and ability to recover from unexpected issues. It could be server crashes, network failures, or unexpected traffic surges. By stressing the software in a controlled way, you can uncover potential vulnerabilities and strengthen your system’s overall reliability and uptime.
Best Practices for Using Staging Environments
Regular Updates
Regular updates make sure that your staging environment remains an accurate reflection of production. These updates should include syncing databases, APIs, and services to match production settings and using the same configurations, tools, and data patterns in staging as you will in production to make sure the staging environment closely mirrors how the application will behave in real-world conditions.
Prioritize The Right Tests
Not all features need to be tested in staging, but high-impact features and core user journeys should be the priority. This targeted approach to software testing helps catch major bugs early which saves you time and resources by preventing the need for exhaustive testing across all features.
Monitor Performance
Use real-time monitoring tools to track how the software performs under normal and high traffic loads. Performance testing in staging can identify any scaling issues, memory leaks, or system limitations that could affect performance in the live environment.
Clear Communication and Documentation
You should be keeping detailed records of all tests conducted in the staging environment, including test scenarios, results, and any issues found to promote transparency and effective communication across teams. This step is so important (and often overlooked) for keeping everyone informed and for maintaining a smooth flow between stages.
When Should You Test in Staging vs. Production?
Staging is typically where you conduct testing to validate functionality, integration, and performance in an environment that mimics production as closely as possible. This is the final checkpoint before going live.
Once the software passes staging, you can test it in the production environment which provides insights into how the application performs with real user data and under actual conditions. With tools like A/B testing and feature flags, you can test and deploy new features within a small subset of users, allowing you to validate functionality and performance to know if it’s truly ready for widespread release.
Streamline Experimentation and Testing
Eppo integrates effortlessly into your staging environment, enhancing your software testing and experimentation workflows. With our feature flagging system, you can manage controlled rollouts, test new features with select users, and ensure everything runs smoothly before full-scale deployment. Eppo empowers your team to collaborate effectively, providing real-time insights that guide data-backed decisions and boost the overall quality of your software.
Ready to optimize your staging process and improve release confidence? Request a demo today to see how Eppo can help you streamline experimentation, accelerate testing, and elevate software quality.
Streamline Experimentation and Testing With Eppo
Eppo integrates into your staging environment to enhance your software testing and experimentation workflows. And with our feature flagging system, you can manage controlled rollouts, test new features with select users, and make sure everything runs smoothly before full-scale deployment. Eppo also aims to help you build a culture of experimentation and collaboration through real-time insights and easy-to-use dashboards that guide data-backed decisions and help you communicate across teams.
Request a demo today to see how Eppo can help you streamline experimentation and accelerate testing in the staging environment.
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