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5. Test Environments & Test Data

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Quality assurance activities require stable and properly configured environments that allow reliable validation of product functionality. Spline Studio projects typically utilize several environments throughout the development lifecycle to support development, testing, and release preparation.

The availability and stability of testing environments are important factors for effective QA execution.

5.1 Test Environments

Testing is typically performed across several environments depending on the stage of the development lifecycle.

flowchart LR
    A["Development
    DEV"] --> B["Pre-Production
    "]
    B --> C["Release Candidate
    RC"]
    C --> D["Production
    PROD"]

    style A fill:#e1f5ff,color:#000000
    style B fill:#fff4e1,color:#000000
    style C fill:#ffe1f5,color:#000000
    style D fill:#e1ffe1,color:#000000

Development Environment (DEV)

Used primarily by developers during implementation. QA may perform early validation to confirm that the feature works correctly in isolation and is ready for initial integration with other features without introducing conflicts.

Pre-Production Environment

The primary environment used by QA engineers for functional, regression, system and exploratory testing. This environment is expected to reflect the application behavior as closely as possible to the intended release configuration.

Release Candidate Environment (RC)

A pre-release environment representing the final stage before release, where the system is validated in conditions closely resembling production. This environment is used for acceptance testing performed by both internal teams and external stakeholders (e.g., clients) to confirm release readiness.

Production Environment

The live system used by end users. QA may perform limited production verification after deployment to confirm that critical functionality operates correctly.

5.2 Environment Stability

Reliable testing requires stable and properly configured environments. When environments are unstable or contain incomplete deployments, testing results may be unreliable.

QA teams perform basic environment validation (smoke checks) to confirm that the application is operational before starting detailed testing activities. Issues related to environment instability are communicated to the responsible teams for resolution.

5.3 Test Data Management

Testing activities require appropriate data to validate system behavior across different scenarios.

Test data may include:

  • dedicated test accounts
  • generated test datasets
  • anonymized data derived from production sources when appropriate
  • test data created by QA engineers specifically for validating defined test scenarios and test cases

In some projects, test data may be stored and maintained in dedicated test databases or controlled datasets to allow consistent reuse during testing activities.

Where possible, sensitive or personal data should be anonymized or replaced with synthetic data to ensure compliance with data protection standards.