Software Test Life Cycle, Requirement Analysis, Test Planning, Test Design, Test Environment Setup, Test Execution, and Test Cycle Closure.
Software Testing Life Cycle/ Software Testing Process
Software Testing Life Cycle (STLC) identifies what test activities to carry out and when to accomplish those test activities. Even though testing differs between organizations, there is a testing life cycle.
Just like Software Developers follow the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), Software Testers also follow the Software Testing Life Cycle.
Software Test Process is not a single activity, it consists of many different activities which are executed to achieve a good quality product.
There are different phases in STLC which are given below:
1) Requirement Analysis
2) Test Planning
3) Test Design & Development
4) Test Environment Setup
5) Test Execution
6) Test Cycle Closure
We have Entry and Exit Criteria for all levels in the Software Testing Life Cycle…
Entry Criteria: Entry Criteria gives the prerequisite items that must be completed.
Exit Criteria: Exit Criteria defines the items that must be completed.
1) Requirement Analysis
In the Requirement Analysis phase, test team studies the requirements and identify the testable requirements.
Entry Criteria: Requirements Document available (both functional and non functional), Application Architectural document or Product should be available…
Exit Criteria: RTM should be signed off and The customer should sign off on the test automation feasibility
Activities in this phase:
i) Identify types of tests to be performed.
ii) Risk Analysis
ii) Prepare Requirement Traceability Matrix (RTM).
iii) Identify Test environment details
iv) Automation feasibility analysis (if required).
Deliverables:
i) Requirement Traceability Matrix (RTM)
ii) Automation feasibility report(Optional)
2) Test Planning
> In this phase the Test Manager or Test Lead prepares the Test Plan and Test strategy documents.
Entry Criteria: Requirements Document, Requirement Traceability Matrix (RTM) and Automation Feasibility
Report
Exit Criteria: Approved Test Plan document, Test Strategy document and Effort estimation document
Activities in this phase:
i) Selection of Testing Approach
ii) Test Estimation
iii) Team Formation
iv) Preparation of Test Plan, Test strategy documents
v) Configuration Management Planning
vi) Resource planning
vii) Test Tool Selection (if required)
viii) Training Requirement
Deliverables:
i) Test Plan, Test Strategy document.
ii) Test estimation document.
Etc..
3) Test Design & Development
> In Test design phase, testers prepare test scenarios, test cases/test scripts and test data based on the Requirement Document/s and Test Plan.
Entry Criteria: Requirements Document/s, RTM and Test Plan, Automation analysis report
Exit Criteria: Reviewes Test cases, Test Scripts (if automation) and Test data.
Activities in this phase:
i) Derive Test Scenarios
ii) Test Case Documentation
iii) Review Test Cases
iii) Update RTM – Map Test Cases to Requirements in RTM
iv) Creation of Test Scripts if required
v) Collect Test Data
Etc…
Deliverables:
i) Test cases
ii) Test scripts (for automation if required)
iv) Test Data
4) Test Environment Setup
> It is a combination of hardware and software environment on which the tests will be executed.
> Test Environment supports test execution with software, hardware and network configured. Test environment configuration must mimic the production environment.
> Readiness of the test environment can be validated by smoke testing performed by the Testing team.
Entry Criteria: System design document/s, Architectural document of the application and Environment set-up checklist. Provision of Test Plan, readiness of Smoke Test cases and preparation of test data.
Exit criteria: Test environment should be ready and smoke testing should be performed successfully.
Activities:
i) Setup Test Environment and Test Data
ii) Verify Test Environment by Conducting Smoke Tests
Deliverables:
i) Test Environment ready with test data set up
ii) Smoke Test Results.
5) Test Execution
> In Test Execution phase the test cases are executed in the testing environment, while execution of the test cases the Testing team may find bugs which will be reported, bugs are fixed by the developer and they are retested by the Testing Team.
Entry Criteria: Test Plan document, Test cases, Test data, Test Environment
Exit Criteria: Test case execution report. Defect report, RTM
Activities:
i) Execution of Test Cases
ii) Document test results, and log defects for failed cases
iii) Update RTM – Map defects to test cases in RTM
iv) Retest the Defect fixes
v) Track the Defects to Closure
Deliverables:
i) Test execution Report
ii) Updated test cases with results
iii) Completed RTM with execution status
iv) Opened and Closed Bug Report/s
6) Test Cycle Closure
> Testing team will meet , discuss and analyze testing artifacts and evaluate Test cycle completion criteria. Identify strategies that have to be implemented in future and taking lessons from the current test cycle.
Entry Criteria: Test case Execution report and Opened and closed Defect Reports
Exit Criteria: Test Closure Report signed off by client, Test Metrics
Activities:
i) Evaluate Test Cycle completion criteria
ii) Prepare test metrics
iii) Documentation of the learning from the project
iv) Prepare Test closure report
Deliverables:
i) Test Closure report
ii) Test metrics
Note: This Software Testing Life Cycle or Software Test Process is for conducting Software Testing in System Testing Level and It is Manual Testing Process.
