Environment Design

Purpose

Define consistent environment configurations for development, testing, staging, and production to ensure reliable deployments and proper isolation between environments.

When to Use

• Project setup
• CI/CD pipeline design
• Deployment planning
• Environment troubleshooting

Prerequisites

• Infrastructure design complete
• Deployment needs understood
• Testing strategy defined
• Cost constraints known

Process

Step 1: Identify Environments

Standard environments:
- Development: Local/shared dev
- Testing: Automated test execution
- Staging: Pre-production validation
- Production: Live system

Step 2: Define Environment Purposes

For each environment:
- Primary use case
- Who has access
- Data characteristics
- Uptime expectations
- Cost constraints

Step 3: Specify Configuration

For each environment define:
- Infrastructure (scale, redundancy)
- Data (real, synthetic, anonymized)
- Integrations (mocked, sandbox, production)
- Secrets management
- Monitoring level

Step 4: Plan Data Management

Data strategy:
- Development: Seed data, minimal
- Testing: Fixtures, automated reset
- Staging: Anonymized production copy
- Production: Real data, protected

Step 5: Document Environment Matrix

Create matrix showing:
- All configuration parameters
- Values per environment
- Parity indicators
- Differences and reasons

Inputs

Input	Type	Required	Description
infrastructure_design	Markdown	Yes	Production architecture
testing_strategy	Markdown	Yes	Test environment needs
cost_constraints	JSON	Optional	Budget per environment

Outputs

Output	Type	Description
environments.md	Markdown	Environment definitions
env_config/	Files	Environment configs
env_matrix.md	Markdown	Configuration matrix

StudyAbroad-Specific Considerations

• External API sandboxes for testing
• Anonymized GDPR data for staging
• Separate OAuth apps per environment
• Document storage isolation

Integration Points

• DevOps Agent: Environment provisioning
• Developer Agent: Local setup
• Test Manager: Test environment needs

Examples

Environment Matrix - StudyAbroad-v1

| Config | Development | Testing | Staging | Production |
|--------|-------------|---------|---------|------------|
| Purpose | Local dev | CI/CD tests | UAT/QA | Live |
| URL | localhost:3000 | test.internal | staging.studyabroad.com | studyabroad.com |
| API instances | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2-10 |
| Database | Local PG / Docker | Docker PG | RDS small | RDS medium |
| Cache | Local Redis | Docker Redis | ElastiCache | ElastiCache |
| Storage | Local / MinIO | MinIO | S3 (staging) | S3 (prod) |
| Data | Seed data | Fixtures | Anonymized copy | Real |
| Ext APIs | Mocked | Sandbox | Sandbox | Production |
| OAuth | Dev app | Test app | Staging app | Prod app |
| Secrets | .env file | CI secrets | AWS Secrets | AWS Secrets |
| Monitoring | Console | Minimal | Full | Full + alerts |
| Cost/month | $0 | ~$20 | ~$150 | ~$500 |

ENVIRONMENT PURPOSES:

Development:
- Individual developer machines
- Docker Compose for dependencies
- Seed data for common scenarios
- All external APIs mocked
- Fast feedback loop

Testing:
- CI/CD pipeline execution
- Automated test suites
- Ephemeral (created/destroyed per run)
- Sandbox API connections
- Fixtures for consistent tests

Staging:
- Pre-production validation
- UAT testing
- Production-like infrastructure (smaller)
- Anonymized data snapshot
- Sandbox APIs (or production with test data)
- Manual testing by QA/stakeholders

Production:
- Live user traffic
- Full redundancy
- Real data with backups
- Production API connections
- 24/7 monitoring and alerts
- Change management required

DATA MANAGEMENT:

Development → Testing:
- Fixtures in version control
- npm run seed for setup

Production → Staging (weekly):
1. pg_dump from production
2. Run anonymization script
3. Restore to staging
4. Clear sensitive documents
5. Reset OAuth tokens

Validation

• All environments defined
• Clear purpose for each
• Data strategy documented
• Cost estimates included
• Parity with production clear

###DIFFBREAK###

Complete SDLC Skills Content Library - Part 2 Continued

Project: StudyAbroad-v1

Test Manager Agent Skills (continued)