Environment Types

Overview

Environment Types define the role of each Decisions environment connected to the Deployment Server. Each environment type serves a specific purpose in the deployment process and is identified using environment-specific tags during registration.

The Deployment Server supports three environment types: Development, QA, and Production. Development supports a single instance, while QA and Production support multiple instances.

Note

All environments connect to the Deployment Server using secure authentication keys. A separate key is generated for each environment instance during registration.
To help connect the deployment server, please refer to the article "Connecting an Environment to the Deployment Server".

Development Environment

The Development environment is the source environment where users build, update, and check in project changes. Development is limited to a single instance.

The Development environment commonly supports the following activities:

PMIS integration
User Story tracking
Sprint management
Code check-in

Important

Development is the originating environment for every project change. Deployment types (Manual, Auto Deploy, Schedule Deploy) control how a Deployment Package is delivered to a target environment, and only QA and Production act as deployment targets. Because Development is never a deployment target, no deployment type applies to it.

QA Environment

The QA environment is used for testing and validating builds before they are promoted to Production. QA supports multiple instances, allowing teams to configure separate testing environments as needed.

The QA environment commonly supports the following activities:

Unit testing
UAT configuration
Flexible deployment scheduling
Build validation

Deployment Types for QA

After a QA environment is connected to the Deployment Server, administrators can configure how deployments are delivered to that environment.

The following deployment types are available for QA environments:

Manual: Builds are deployed only when a user manually starts the deployment.
Auto Deploy: New builds are automatically deployed to the configured QA environment as soon as they are created in a Deployment Package.
Schedule Deploy: A selected package is deployed automatically at a specified future date and time.

For QA environments that support automated deployment behavior, administrators can also configure the system to run unit tests after deployment.

Important Notes

Auto Deploy is typically intended for non-production target environments such as QA.
If a deployment is already scheduled and a user starts the deployment manually before the scheduled time, the scheduled deployment is canceled, and the deployment begins immediately.

Production Environment

The Production environment is the live environment where finalized and approved packages are deployed. Production supports multiple instances.

The Production environment commonly supports the following activities:

Final deployment
Package promotion
Version increment
Release management

Recommendation

Production environments should use controlled deployment processes. Automatically deploying every new build to Production is not recommended.

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