# Test Data Test data is information that is entered into an application for the purpose of simulating the information that exists in the production environment. Test data is used in both functional and nonfunctional types of testing to [[Making load testing scripts more realistic|make load testing scripts more realistic]], prompt the testing of edge cases that may only have occurred in production, and improve the quality of the test results. Using the same data (such as user credentials) in your test may yield faster-than-average response times due to server-side or client-side [[Cache|caching]]. To avoid this, you should consider using a more diverse data set. Using a variety of data can also expose issues seen in production that arise due to data being in different states. For example, a financial institution running a load test for mortgage origination might well get excellent response times when testing the same user on a “happy path”: a user who has filled out all the information for a loan and has passed the identity checks. However, using a larger set of users that is more representative of production may show that a user who does not fill out enough information for the identity checks experiences very slow response times as the application waits for the responses from the identity verification service in the background. The easiest way to get [[Production-like environment|production-like]] data is to use production data, but this practice is often in direct violation of privacy rules and regulations. ## [[How to generate test data]] ## In [[Load Testing Tool]]s - [[JMeter CSV Data Set Config]] - [[Test Data in Gatling]] ## Related - [[Test Data Services]] is a SaaS created by [[Paul McLean]] for the creation, management, and retrieval of predefined identities via [[API]]s.