The Challenge
Why Environments Behave Differently
Development, test and production drift apart. Code that works in one fails in another.
Is This Relevant?
Is This Use Case Relevant to Your Organization?
The people, moments and signals that usually bring this need to the surface.
Relevant Teams
- Engineering teams
- Platform teams
- Quality assurance
Common Triggers
- Release failures caused by environment differences
- Long waits for test environments
- Adoption of containers
Warning Signs
- “Works on my machine” problems
- Hand-built test environments
- Different versions in each environment
Typical Environments
- Public cloud, private cloud and on-premises
- Servers, networks, databases and containers
Benefits
What Better Looks Like
Intended benefits. Actual results depend on your environment and starting point.
Our Approach
A Practical Approach
Codify one environment first, then reuse the patterns. Each stage is tailored to your environment.
Assess
Review environments, provisioning steps, tools and change processes.
Prioritize
Rank what you find by business impact, effort and risk, and agree where to start.
Design
Agree module structure, standards and the review workflow.
Implement
Write templates, automate provisioning and configuration.
Validate and Optimize
Rebuild environments from code and compare results.
Solutions
Solutions That Can Help
The solutions that address this use case, starting with the primary one.
Services
How Signisys Can Support You
The services that deliver the approach, from the first assessment to ongoing improvement.
Technology
Technology Options
Where technology fits in the approach. Specific platforms and partner status are confirmed for each engagement.
Before You Start
What to Consider Before Getting Started
A little preparation makes the first assessment faster and its findings more reliable.
- Environments and their differences today
- Containers or virtual machines
- Test data management
- Cost of on-demand environments
- Who will own the work and act on recommendations
- Engagement model and ongoing support
Measuring Success
How to Measure Success
Illustrative measures. Agree a baseline first, and keep targets separate from measured results.
Environment Setup Time
Time to create an environment.
Environment-Related Failures
Failures caused by differences.
Configuration Drift
Differences between environments.
Wait Time
Time teams wait for environments.
Our Approach
How We Deliver Results
How Signisys works, from the first assessment to handover and beyond.
FAQs
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about this use case.
How do we know our environments are inconsistent?
Failures that appear only in production, hand-built test environments and different software versions are the usual signs.
Will on-demand environments raise costs?
They are created when needed and removed after, which often costs less than environments running all the time.
What information is needed to get started?
How environments are built today, the tools used, known differences and how test data is managed.
Which environments does this apply to?
Public cloud, private cloud and on-premises, including servers, networks, databases and containers.
How is progress measured?
Agree a baseline for measures such as environment setup time, environment-Related failures, configuration drift and wait time, then track them over time.
Related Content
Related Outcomes, Use Cases and Guides
Where to go next: the outcome this use case supports, nearby scenarios, technology partners and practical guides.
Business Outcome
Modernize IT Infrastructure and Applications
Problem Explainer
What Causes Inconsistent Software Environments? Common Problems and Warning Signs
Coming soon
How-To Guide
How to Standardize Development, Test and Production Environments: A Practical Step-by-Step Guide
Coming soon
Checklist
Standardize Development, Test and Production Environments Checklist: What IT Teams Should Assess
Coming soon
Decision Guide
How to Choose the Right Approach to Standardize Development, Test and Production Environments: Options and Trade-Offs
Coming soon
Standardize Environments
Share your current challenges and priorities with Signisys to explore an approach suited to your environment.