What is STLC ?

Software testing life cycle

software testing life cycle identifies what test activites are to be carried out and when to. Even though testing may differ between organizations, there is a generic testing life cycle that can be applied to across all organization.
Software Testing Life Cycle mainly consists of six (generic) phases. There are as follows ~~~~~~
1. Test Planning
2. Test Analysis
3. Test Design
4. Construction and verification
5. Testing Cycles
6. Final Testing and Implementation and
7. Post Implementation.

Software Testing has its own life cycle that intersects with every stage of the SDLC. The basic requirements in software testing life cycle is to control software testing -- Manual, Automated and Performance.

Test Planning --

This is the phase where Project Manager has to decide what all needs to tested. What is the appropriate budget and resources available etc. Proper planning at this stage would greatly reduce the risk of low quality software. Activities at this stage would include preparation of high level test plan. The Software Test Plan (STP) is designed to define the scope, approach, resources, and schedule of all testing activities. The plan must identify the items to be tested, the features to be tested, the types of testing to be performed, the personnel responsible for testing, the resources and schedule required to complete testing and the risks associated with the plan.

Test Analysis --

Once the test plan is ready and finilized, next stap is to deleve little more into the project and decide what types of testing should be carried out at different stages of SDLC, Do we need or plan to automate, if yes then what is the appropriate time to automate what type of specific documentation is required for testing.

Proper and regular meetings should be held between testing teams, project managers, development teams, and business analysts to check the progress of thiings which will give a fair idea of the movement of the project and ensure the completeness of the test plan created in the planning phase. This will furthur help in enhancing the right testing strategy created earlier. We need to start creating test case formats and test case itself. In this stage we may also need to develop functional validation matrix based on Business Requirements to ensure that all system requirements are covered by one or more test cases, identify which test cases to automate, begin review of documentation, i.e. Functional Design, Business Requirements, Product Specifications, and Product Extarnal etc. We also have to define areas for stress and Performance testing.

Test Design --

In this phase the test plan and cases developed in the analysis phase are further revised, Functional validation matrix is also revised and finilised. In this stage risk assessment criteria is developed. If you have thought of automation then you have to select which test cases to automate and begin writing to scripts for them. Test data is prepared. Standards for unit testing and pass / fail criteria are defined. Schedule for testing is revised ( if necessary) and finilized and the test environment is prepared.

Construction and Verification --

In this phase we complere all the test plans, test cases, complete the scripting of the automated test cases, Stress and Performance testing plans needs to be completed. The development team is also supported in their unitl testing phase. And bug reporting is done as and when the bugs are found. Integration tests are also performed and errors (if any) are reported.

Testing Cycles --

 In this phase we conplete testing cycles until test cases are executed without errors or a predefined condition is reached.

Run test cases --> Report Bugs --> revise test cases (if needed) --> add new test cases (if needed) --> bug fixing --> retesting (test cycle 2, test cycle 3, ............).

Final Testing and Implementation ---

In this phase the remaining stress and performance test cases are executed, documentation for testing is completed / updated, provided and different matrices for testing are completed. Acceptance,load and recovery testing will also be conducted and the application needs to be verified under production conditions.

Post Implementation -- 

In this phase, the testing process is evaluated and lessons learnt from the testing process are documented. Line of attack to prevent similar problems in future projects is identified. Plans are created to improve the process. The recording of new errors and enhancements is an ongoing process.