Software Testing Life Cycle is defined as the different steps or phases that occurs during the testing process of a Software. Each phase is carried out in a planned and systematic way and all these phases have its own goal.
As shown in the picture above the different phases of Software Testing Life Cycle are,
- Requirement Analysis
- Test Plan Creation
- Environment Setup
- Test Case Execution
- Defect Logging
- Test Cycle Closure
Each of these steps has its on Entry and Exit criteria. Before entering to a Testing phase entry criterion has to meet and also before exiting the current testing phase it has to met the exit criteria too.
Requirement Analysis
This is the very first and important phase of testing. In this stage testing team has to put their full focus to learn and understand the requirement of that particular product from the point of view of a tester. They have sit along with all the other stakeholders to understand the requirement in detail.
Based on the understanding they obtained from the requirement study, they have to do different types of activities such as,
- Identify the different types of test to be performed
- Understanding the priorities and focus
- Prepare Requirement Traceability Matrix or RTM (RTM is nothing but a document that maps user requirement with test cases. Main purpose of RTM is to make sure that all the test cases are so that no functionality is missed while testing the product.)
- Identify Test environment details
- Understand the feasibility of automation testing
Based on the activities carried out during phase teeter has to deliver RTM and Automation feasibility report as the outcome.
Test Planning
This phase is usually done by a Senior QA Manager. He will determines the effort and cost estimates for the project and he will prepare and finalize the test plan and he determines the test strategy.
The activities carried out during this phase are,
- Preparation of test plan/test strategy
- Test tool selection
- Test cost and effort estimation
- Resource planning and determining roles and responsibilities
- Identifying training requirement
Deliverables and Outcomes of this phase are,
- Test Plan/ Test Strategy document
- Effort estimation document
Test Case Development
After the test plan is finalized QA team initiates the development of test cases. Once the test case is developed the Business Analyst will review and rework if any modification is required and then sign off the test cases.
Once the BI signed off the test cases QA team will prepare the Test Data.
Activities included in this phase are,
- Test Scenarios Identification such as identifying the motive of different users eg:-Hackers.
- Test Case Writing – Test cases are documented including test data, expected results
- Test Data Preparation
Test Environment setup
Test environment includes the elements that support the execution with software, hardware, network configurations etc. This includes the combination of both hardware and software, configuration of hardware, OS setting, Software configuration etc. Readiness of environment setup is validated by smoke testing.
Activities involved in this phase are,
- Design Test Environment
- Setup of the Environment
- Conduct smoke testing
Test Execution
This is the phase were the real testing is happening. Here the QA team will execute the test cases they have prepared and compare the expected result with the actual result. Testers will report the bugs if any, prioritize the issues, resolve blocking issues as they arise.
Activities included in this phase are,
- System Integration testing (SIT) – It is a black box testing technique that evaluates systems compliance against test cases.
- Defect Reporting – A bug arises when the expected result doesn’t match with the actual result. These bugs are reported to the concerned team members.
- Defect Mapping – Once defect is reported and logged, it should be mapped with the concerned test case and RTM.
- Re-Testing – This is done to check whether a bug is resolved or not.
- Regression Testing – This is done after closing all the test cases. Regression Testing is a black box testing to check the overall product after closing of all the test cases.
Test Cycle Closure
Before signing off from the test process, the product quality is measured against the test completion criteria. Before closing test, process team has to make sure that there are no critical issues.
A Test Completion Report is created which indicates the quality, measures outstanding risks, and identifies the level of a tested software.
While executing the test case, re-testing defects and performing regression test case, these data is saved to produce a test result document to support the completion of test execution.
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