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Overview of the Development Environment

Figure 3 illustrates an overview of the development environment.

Figure 3. Overview of the Development Environments

The development environment includes the following environments:

1. Development. You use this environment to perform the initial configuration. It typically includes a server computer, several client computers, development tools, and a small set of data that includes repository data, seed data, and sample transactional data. A development server is the server computer in the development environment. For more information, see About the Local Development Environment.
2. Test. You use this environment to test your custom Siebel application with data that simulates the production environment. A separate computer, or several computers, contain business data but no development tools. You copy the configuration from the development environment to the test environment. To simulate the production environment, you configure rules and set up actual data for your organization. After you complete the setup, you test customizations, patches, and version upgrades.
3. Production. Similar to the test environment that exists at the end of testing, but the production environment includes hundreds or thousands of users and live business data. You move the configuration and user data from the test environment to the production environment, and then deploy the product to users.

Each environment corresponds to a stage in the application rollout. Each environment contains separate hardware, software, and data. Using this structure prevents the activities you perform in one environment from interfering with activities you perform in another environment. For example, configuration work in the development environment does not interfere with testing activities in the test environment.