Testing data-centric systems can be an especially challenging job. Most organizations tackle this in one of two ways. They can either produce faux data based on the existing materials they have, or they can partition real data for testing. When they use the faux data, that process is called test data management.
Many organizations use this method, and they also rely on third-party test data management services providers to handle the task. You might wonder why you would turn to an outside business for this sort of work so let's explore that question.
Expertise
If you don't already have a robust test data management operation in place, it can be a surprisingly difficult job to tackle. That's especially the case for businesses that just don't do a lot of it. For example, an e-commerce website might only need to conduct tests after major renovations to the site. Such work may only come every few years, and it's usually hard to justify keeping a team of dedicated professionals on your payroll for this purpose. Conversely, a third party will bring extensive experience and have access to the right tools.
Avoiding Biases
When you work with data, it's easy to fall into particular patterns. Unfortunately, a pattern is a bias waiting to happen. Third-party test data management services firms don't impute the biases of their customers into their work. Generally, they use tools that mitigate bias as much as possible within the limitations of the real dataset. While you can't entirely eradicate biases in datasets, it can be beneficial to get fresh eyes on a project.
Saving Time
If you're testing a system, there's a good chance you have a bigger goal than playing around with the data. A company that has a team of programmers and mathematicians doing work on a machine learning project, for example, can probably think of better things for them to do. Test data management is a mundane task that requires close attention to detail to avoid creating less mundane problems.
By focusing on what you do well and letting the test data management company do its thing, you can often save time. You won't have to research software, develop techniques, and build out the infrastructure for the job.
Diversifying the Test Data
Depending on your project, you may also need to use a diverse dataset to test your systems. A test data management team can create a large and diverse corpus to attack the problem from many angles and through numerous iterations without repeating certain dataset patterns.
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