To perform controlled testing, you must reset your Test environment so that it corresponds to your Production environment as closely as possible.
To reset your Test environment, ensure the following:
The platform in the Test environment matches your current Production environment. The platform includes the application server, Repository DBMS, and JDK version. See Step 1: Document Your Platform.
The Waveset application image in your Test environment corresponds to the application baseline for your current Production environment.
The database table definitions in the Test environment match those in the Production environment.
Resources and other integrated applications match those in the Production environment.
If real test resources do not exist, you can create simulated resources for the functional test.
Every time you promote an image of your Waveset application from the Development environment, you must test your cumulative upgrade procedure. If the upgrade procedure appears to be successful, execute your test plan.
To prepare for functional testing, you must create a Test environment that supports controlled testing of your Waveset application.
You might want to simulate some aspects of the Production environment, but the primary goal is to verify that the application works as expected. Achieving this goal might require that you load controlled datasets rather than perfectly realistic ones.
Load test data into your database tables that supports execution of the test cases in your test plan. Ideally, the database tables would also contain data similar to the data in your Production environment.