Production, test, development, QA, QS: System landscapes and especially their terminology are often complex and can be quite confusing. It is not uncommon for synonyms to be used and delimitations between systems to be diluted. With the Libelle IT Glossary, we not only want to shed more light on IT terms, but also create clear definitions and distinctions. In the third part, we take a closer look at the difference between production system, development system and QA system.
Regardless of whether it is a 2-, 3- or 5-system landscape, a production system is always the focus of a company. After all, it is precisely on this system that an IT application is operated. Ideally, it not only runs smoothly and impresses with maximum high availability, but also regularly offers new features and developments. However, departments and end users quite rightly demand not only new features, but also intuitive and efficient usability in the operation of ERP, CRM and other programs. But where exactly are these adjustments made? In the development environment or in the test environment?
Normally, there is not much difference between development system and test system. Instead, only the terms are used synonymously. Developers make adjustments to the software, bug fixes, etc. in a development environment that is optimally modeled on the production system. The challenge: The data required for the tests should be logically correct and realistic on one hand, but also meet the requirements of the GDPR on the other. Anonymization software such as Libelle DataMasking can solve this problem.
The new software version is final and can be taken directly from the development system for productive use? Not quite. In order to correct errors and make further (minor) optimizations, the use of a quality assurance system (QA system for short) makes sense. Similar terms include quality assurance system (QA system) or simply Q system. In this system environment, it is important for the IT to test the new developments iteratively and find errors exploratively. If the new software version is finally found to be sufficiently good, it can be prepared for productive use and finally released.
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