So, you’ve been asked to write a “Test Environment Management Plan”? Or perhaps you just want to write a plan to baseline your current non-production processes, outline future test environment strategy and/or educate those around you.

* Definition: “Test Environment Management Plan”

A plan, focused on Test Environment Management (or non-production environment management), that will promote a better level of visibility across one’s test environments and operations and establish proactive controls / standards to ensure they are effectively managed, used, shared, serviced and provisioned (and/or deleted) in an efficient manner.

Two Questions

Two question we often get asked at Enov8 is where does one begin and/or can you provide a good example.

In response to the first question, where does one begin

we often point them back to two key reference points.

• IEEE 828 Configuration Mgmt Standards

The IEEE’s recommended minimum standard for process for Configuration Management.

• EMMI definition (v3)

An overarching guideline for Test Environment Maturity.

Firstly, because at the heart of Test Environment Management is Configuration Management. There is no getting away from it, the heart of good TEM is Identification, Managements, Status Accounting & Audit. And secondly TEM is more than simply Configuration Management, TEM has associated “nuances” that move into the wider world of Agile, ITSM & ITOM.

In response to the second, can we provide a good example

we often scratch our head 🙁 … You see, the problem with providing an example is there are not many good samples of a Test Environment Plan available online. In fact, it is often hard enough to find “good” Configuration Management Plans, and people have been writing these since the seventies.

So, with that in mind, we decided to put together a template (a simple guideline) that other people can follow and leverage. A template that shares many of the structural elements you might expect to find in a Configuration Management Plan, but with an extra twist aligned to the IT & Test Environment Management Maturity Index.

Example TEM Plan Template Structure

Test Environment Management Plan (Light Version)

1 Introduction

Tip: Initial TEM introduction, scoping & context.

1.1 Purpose of the TEM Plan

1.2 Scope of Document

Tip: In addition to TEM process we suggest you describe at a high level,  your Test Environment(s) your supporting here.  

1.3 Definitions, Acronyms and Abbreviations

1.4 Document References

1.5 Document Overview

2 The TEM Team Structure

Tip: High Level overview of TEM team structure & enablers.

2.1 Organisation

2.2 Responsibilities

2.3 Tools & Infrastructure

3 The TEM Process

Tip: Define how each primary process will be realized (think People, Process & Tools)

3.1 Knowledge Management

Refer: Mapping your Environments.

3.2 Demand Management

3.3 Planning & Coordination

3.4 Service Management

3.5 Data Operations

3.6 Application Operations

3.7 Infrastructure Operations

3.8 Status Accounting & Reporting

4 Plan Outcomes

Outline the primary benefits of implementing this Test Environment Management plan.

For example:

The intention / benefits of implementing this plan can be summarized as follow:

• End to End visibility of Test Environments
• End to End Visibility of Activity
• Operational Standardization
• Increased DevTest productivity
• Reduced Environment Incidents / Disruption
• Accelerated IT Project Delivery
• IT Cost Optimization / Controlled Spend i.e. spend based on need & usage.

5 Implementation Project Plan

Tip” Describe how we will get there.

5.0 Project Resources

5.1 Delivery Milestone Plan

5.2 Actor Training Plan

5.3 Optimization Plan

6 Appendix

A Concise Download Version

For a more concise version of above (with section explanations) please download our PDF example.

• Test Environment Management Plan

Post Authoring Review

Happy with your document and/or new processes?

• Hold regular retrospectives with stakeholders & team members to get ideas for improvement.
• And use our online EMMI calculator to compare it against the EMMI methodology.

There are always opportunities to optimize.

Want to learn more about how to improve your Test Environment Management?

If you are interested in learning more about implementing a mature IT & Test Environment Management capability in your organisations then speak to enov8 about enov8 Environment Manager. Enov8 Environment Manager is the only complete platform that takes you across the Environment Management, Release & Data Spectrum.

Jane Temov

Jane is an experienced IT Environments Management & Resilience Evangelist. Areas of specialism include IT & Test Environment Management, Disaster Recovery, Release Management, Service Resilience, Configuration Management, DevOps &Infra/Cloud Migration. 

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