Software Testing Life Cycle Pdf

[Curtis Boykins]

STLCis a systematic approach to testing, which involves verifying an application to check if it meets the requirements and is free of faults. It follows a series/phase of steps where every phase has its objective and deliverables, and the software must fulfill those goals to move on to the next step. The purpose of STLC in testing is to provide a high-quality, reliable, and stable application that stays true to the requirements of the customers. The phases of STLC are Planning, Analysis, Design, Environment Setup, Execution, Closure, and Defect Retesting. We will discuss each one of these steps in detail in the coming sections.

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Both STLC and SDLC are related to software development and are two critical parts of software development, but they differ in their goals. STLC singularly pertains to the entire testing phase that is a part of the SDLC life cycle. You can perform STLC either within SDLC or alongside it. The key difference between the two is their functioning; SDLC undertakes the complete structure of planning, designing, creating, testing, and deploying the software, whereas STLC develops and executes the tests created to validate the user requirements gathered as part of SDLC.

STLC must comply with entry and exit criteria to be termed as successful. Ideally, the QA team takes care of this point and only begins/completes the next STLC phase after both criteria are met. Both these criteria are defined for each phase of STLC.

Entry criteria for an STLC phase are to undertake all prerequisite conditions that must be met before testing starts. All the documents, with the necessary information regarding testing, should be available before initiating any of the STLC phases. For example, to begin with, creating test cases, you must have the user requirement document, a complete understanding of the application flow, and the test plan document. This is the entry criteria for developing and executing test cases.

Exit criteria are all the information/items that must be available and completed before concluding a phase. It includes all the actions, tasks, documents, and test elements that need to be over before marking the phase complete and moving on to the next one. One example of exit criteria can be verifying if the user requirements are proper and all the risk-associated areas of an application are thoroughly tested.

STLC consists of 6 phases where each has its entry-exit criteria and comes with associated activities and deliverables. Entry-exit criteria define when the phase starts and ends. Activities and deliverables define the actions taken within the phase and the results received. You can execute some of these phases together while others run more independently. These are the 6 phases of STLC:

It is the first phase of STLC which deals with the QA team analyzing and understanding the requirement document to start the testing process with accurate information.In the Requirement analysis phase, the entry criteria are requirement documents, acceptance criteria, and understanding of the product architecture. The exit criteria for this phase are approved Requirements Traceability Matrix (RTM) and automation feasibility reports that evaluate if the tests can be automated. All of this ensures that the testing process starts with the right information and focuses on the important areas of the software.

After determining the user requirements, the next phase of STLC is to plan the tests. It is a critical step of STLC where all the test plans are defined, and a detailed strategy is laid out for the project. It includes developing test steps, assigning roles and responsibilities, and choosing the right testing approach and automation tools, if any. The QA team also calculates the estimated cost and resources to begin the testing.The entry criteria for the test planning phase are approved Requirements Traceability Matrix (RTM) and automation feasibility reports. The exit criteria are approved test plans, automation scripts, and defining the cost analysis of the complete project.

After finishing the planning stage, this phase is designing and developing the test cases. In this step, the testing team creates the test steps with proper input, test execution conditions, and expected output for execution.For the test case design and development phase, the entry criteria are approved test plans, automation scripts, and defining the cost analysis of the complete project. The exit criteria are the approved test cases and automation scripts with the proper information for each test step.

This phase includes setting up a test environment to run your test cases and check the application for its efficiency. It decides the conditions to test your application and involves configuring and deploying the test environment. Often, this step also includes setting up test servers. You can either perform the test environment setup in sequence or execute it after the requirement analysis phase, as it is independent of all the previous phases.The entry criteria of this phase are requirement documents, system architecture details, and application design. The exit criteria are a fully up-and-running test environment to execute the approved test cases.

After all the setup and planning are over, the test execution phase comes. The QA team runs the test cases and scripts to check the quality of the application. They compare the expected results with the actual results to understand which areas have issues and need attention.The entry criteria of this step are the combined exit criteria of all the previous steps, including test plans/cases, test environment, user requirement document, and more. The exit criteria are all the executed test cases with results.

The last phase of STLC is test closure which pertains to preparing a test result report. It summarizes the testing process and highlights the comparison between the actual and expected test results. The comparison includes the fulfilled project objectives, time taken to complete the testing, budget, test coverage, and identified issues.The entry criteria for the test closure phase are test results after executing all the test cases. The exit criteria are designed, delivered, and approved test results report.

In STLC, before starting any phase, you will have to analyze and define the scope of testing, the entry and exit criteria, and the test cases. All this helps to decrease the test cycle time and enhance product quality. And after the development phase is complete, the testing team can begin the execution using the test cases.

Quality software is important for the business as well as for the users. And STLC in testing ensures that every application you deploy is free of bugs and ready for users. STLC is a series of steps for testers to follow to begin the testing and complete the project on time with minimum issues.There are multiple advantages to STLC and why it is important in testing. There are primarily 6 phases in STLC that govern the testing process and determine the quality of the application. We have discussed all the steps above.One of the best ways to execute the STLC method is to adopt test automation where it is possible to remove redundancies and reuse the test cases. Automating the testing further helps record the results and accurately locate the issues in the applications.For all your automation testing needs, give Testsigma a chance. It is a no-code, AI-powered, cloud-based test automation that supports web, mobile, and API testing. Book a free demo now to see the tool in action.

Software Testing Life Cycle (STLC) is a sequence of specific activities conducted during the testing process to ensure software quality goals are met. STLC involves both verification and validation activities. Contrary to popular belief, Software Testing is not just a single/isolate activity, i.e. testing. It consists of a series of activities carried out methodologically to help certify your software product. STLC stands for Software Testing Life Cycle.

Requirement Phase Testing also known as Requirement Analysis in which test team studies the requirements from a testing point of view to identify testable requirements and the QA team may interact with various stakeholders to understand requirements in detail. Requirements could be either functional or non-functional. Automation feasibility for the testing project is also done in this stage.

Test Planning in STLC is a phase in which a Senior QA manager determines the test plan strategy along with efforts and cost estimates for the project. Moreover, the resources, test environment, test limitations and the testing schedule are also determined. The Test Plan gets prepared and finalized in the same phase.

The Test Case Development Phase involves the creation, verification and rework of test cases & test scripts after the test plan is ready. Initially, the Test data is identified then created and reviewed and then reworked based on the preconditions. Then the QA team starts the development process of test cases for individual units.

Test Environment Setup decides the software and hardware conditions under which a work product is tested. It is one of the critical aspects of the testing process and can be done in parallel with the Test Case Development Phase. Test team may not be involved in this activity if the development team provides the test environment. The test team is required to do a readiness check (smoke testing) of the given environment.

Test Execution Phase is carried out by the testers in which testing of the software build is done based on test plans and test cases prepared. The process consists of test script execution, test script maintenance and bug reporting. If bugs are reported then it is reverted back to development team for correction and retesting will be performed.

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