Setting up databases in development environments can be
challenging.
Normally, what I usually see is some automated process for
setting up empty databases with up-to-date data structures. This
is helpful for integration testing, but is tricky for actual
development as well as performance testing.
For example:
- It is difficult to conceptually get your head around writing a query when you cannot see any data in your tables
- You cannot possibly know if your query is slow before you deploying it to production without running it against 'some' data.
Relevant Post: How to Not be the One that Deploys that Slow Query
to Production
In addition, there can be a strict requirement to not let
sensitive customer data be available outside certain secure
environments and …