There is no one universal software testing life cycle or test process, but there are common sets of test phases/activities which enable testing to achieve its established objectives. Though the phases have been presented sequentially, they need not be carried out in the specified order.
Phase
|
Activity
|
Work Products
|
|
Requirements Analysis
|
You review the business & software requirements and identify any defects in those specifications. |
‘Review Defect’ Reports
|
|
Test Planning
|
Once you have gathered a general idea of what needs to be tested, you ‘plan’ for the tests. |
Test Plan
Test Estimation
Test Schedule
|
|
Test Designing
|
You design/detail your tests on the basis of detailed requirements/design of the software. |
Test Cases/Test Scripts/Test Data
Requirements Traceability Matrix
|
|
Test Environment Setup
|
You setup the test environment (server/client/network, etc) with the goal of replicating the end-users’ environment. |
Test Environment
|
|
Test Execution
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You execute your Test Cases/Scripts in the Test Environment to see whether they pass. |
Test Results (Incremental)
Defect Reports
|
|
Test Reporting & Closure
|
You prepare various reports for various stakeholders. |
Test Results (Final)
Test Metrics
Test Closure Report
|
Selection
The specific software testing life cycle or test process to be used for a particular project can be selected (and adapted) based on the following:
- Software Development Life Cycle
- Business priorities
- Product characteristics and risks
- Project goals and risks
- Team characteristics
- Budgets and resources
- Timescales
- Complexity
- Organizational policies, practices and standards
- Contractual obligations
- Legal regulations
- Industry-specific standards and regulations
Notes
Interestingly, no matter how well-defined a Software Testing Life Cycle you have in your project or organization, there are chances that you will invariably witness the following widely-popular cycle:
In this type of STLC, you skip phases like test designing and head straight to test execution — in the hope that the skipping will save you some time and cost. But, it never does and you’ll instead end up swearing in the end! Yes, a lot.
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