testing-strategy.html.md.erb

---
owner_slack: "#modernisation-platform"
title: Testing Strategy
last_reviewed_on: 2023-12-15
review_in: 6 months
---

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# <%= current_page.data.title %>

## Introduction

We want to test as much of our infrastructure and code as possible. We should endevour to write a test for all new features and changes to existing features.

## Core Platform vs Member testing

This strategy is currently focussed on core platform testing, however members may follow the same principles and use the testing-test environment if they wish.

## Testing tools

We use [Terratest](https://terratest.gruntwork.io/) for testing Terraform code, and [Open Policy Agent (OPA)](https://www.openpolicyagent.org/) for JSON structures.
All other tests should be written in Go and should use the standard Go [testing library](https://pkg.go.dev/testing).

## Testing environments

The AWS account testing-test should be used to run Terratest code into.  This account is empty but configured the same as a member account.

When creating a new repo with the `module` type, empty unit tests and workflow will be present to complete.

Run tests locally using the testing-test account Admin SSO credentials.

Tests running in GitHub actions use the `testing-ci` user.

To minimise securty risks around using static credentials, aws keys for `testing-ci` user are automatically rotated every 7 days.

## Testing areas

|Area to test | Type of test | Testing tool | Testing environment | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|Modules in standalone repositories | Unit test | Terratest | testing-test | |
|Modules in the main repository | Unit test | Terratest | testing-test | |
|Terrafom not in modules | | | | Not currently tested, we should work to move this code into testable modules |
|Environment and networking JSON files | Unit test | OPA | local / Github action ||
|Scripts | | | | Not currently tested, as we rewrite this in Go we should add tests |
| Core platform | Integration test | | | We currently have no such tests |
| Core platform | End to end test | | | We currently have no such tests |
| Core platform | Smoke test ||  | We currently have no such tests |
| Member infrastructure | All | | testing-test | We currently have no such tests |