STLC Interview Questions & Answers

STLC (Software Testing Life cycle) Interview Questions

Question: What is STLC (Software Testing Life cycle)?
Answer: Testing process can be divided into 6 different phases and sequential execution of the same is called STLC (Software Testing Life cycle).

Question: What are the 6 phases of STLC (Software Testing Life cycle)?
Answer: Different phases of STLC are mentioned below:
(a) Requirement Analysis
(b) Test Planning
(c) Test case design
(d) Test environment setup
(e) Test Execution and Defect Reporting
(f) Test Closure

Question: Explain all 6 phases of STLC (Software Testing Life cycle)?
a. Requirement Analysis: Testers will identify and analyse the testable requirement from SRS (Software Requirement Specification) document and clear all the doubts with Business team/stakeholder. Testing scope is decided from this phase.
b. Test Planning: Once Testing scope is finalised next phase is to start test planning which included Estimation, Scheduling, Resourcing, identifying testing tools and techniques, preparing test strategy documents etc. This is done by Test managers.
c. Test case design: Under this phase testing team prepares test cases and test data, get them reviewed by business team and fix if any review comments given.
d. Test environment setup: This can be done in parallel to Test case design phase where all the required hardware and software environment will be setup by development team to perform the testing. Testing team will do smoke testing to check if testing environment is stable enough to kick-off formal testing.
e. Test Execution and Defect Reporting: Under this phase testers execute test cases using given test data, capture Actual results and report defect if any discrepancy found between expected result vs actual results. Developers will fix the defect and assign back to testers to retest and close if fixed else reassign back to developer.
f. Test Closure: This is the last and final phase of STLC, after completion of all testing activities team submits final Test Closure Report to the customer. Under this phase pre specified exit criteria are evaluated with actual condition and as per deviation decision is taken if further testing is required or system is ready.

Question: What is the difference between STLC and SDLC?
Answer: STLC has one phase in parallel to each phase in SDLC which are described below:

SDLC (Software Development Life Cycle)	STLC (Software Testing Life Cycle)
SDLC is the cycle of activities involved in development process.	STLC is the cycle of activities involved in testing process to improve the quality of the product.
SDLC is followed by developers.	STLC is followed by testers.
Development team will analyse the SRS document from development perspective.	In requirement analysis phase testing team will analyse the SRS document to finalize testing scope.
Development team will create high level and detailed system architecture plan.	In planning phase testing team will create detailed Test plan and Test Strategy document.
Development team will develop the product under Coding phase.	Testing team will develop the test cases and setup test environment for test execution.
Under testing phase development team will fix the bugs reported by testing team.	Testing will execute the test cases, report bugs and retest the defects post fix.
Development team will deploy the code in production and provide the support.	Testing team will run the regression suite, alpha & beta testing.

Question: What do you understand by Entry and Exit criteria of any phase in STLC?
• Entry criteria: Minimum requirements to enter into any phase of development or testing is called as Entry criteria of that phase.
• Exit criteria: Minimum required deliverables of any phase to exit are called exit criteria of that particular phase of development or testing.

Question: What are the Entry criteria of Requirement analysis phase?
• Business team should complete all the market research and consult domain expert for the feasibility study of software requirement specifications and finally prepare the document.
• Final copy of SRS Document post all the reviews is the entry criteria of Requirement analysis phase.

Question: What are the activities involved in Requirement analysis phase?
• Testing team will analyse the software requirement and clear all the doubts.
• Testing team will finalise the testing scope.
• Automation scope will be decided.

Question: What are the deliverables or Exit criteria of Requirement analysis phase?
• Requirement Traceability Matrix (RTM).
• Automation Analysis Report.

Question: What are the Entry criteria of Test Planning phase?
Answer: Exit criteria or deliverables of the Requirement analysis phase will be the entry criteria for Test Planning phase. RTM and Automation report should be ready to start the test planning phase.

Question: What are the activities involved in Test Planning phase?
• Test managers will Prepare test plan and strategy documents.
• At high level test plan document will have Effort and cost Estimation, Scheduling, Resource planning and their roles and responsibilities is determined by test managers.
• Identification of testing tools and techniques is also done under this phase.

Question: What are the deliverables or Exit criteria of Test Planning phase?
Answer: Test Plan and Test Strategy documents are the deliverables of the Test planning phase which will all the detailed information about testing phase.

Question: What are the Entry criteria of Test Case Designing & environment setup phase?
Answer: Finalised testing scope and Test Plan/Strategy document will be the entry criteria for the Test case Design phase.

Question: What are the activities involved in Test Case Designing & environment setup phase?
• Prepare detailed test cases and gather test data for test execution.
• Test cases and fixing of review comments.
• Testing team will setup test all the hardware and software environment for test execution.
• Testing team will also run smoke test suite to check the stability of the environment and application.

Question: What are the deliverables or Exit criteria of Test Case Designing & environment setup phase?
Answer: Detailed reviewed test cases and stable test environment will be the deliverables of the Test Case Designing & environment setup phase.

Question: What are the Entry criteria of Test Execution phase?
• Test cases and test data should be ready for the execution.
• Test environment should be stable for the execution.

Question: What are the activities involved in Test Execution phase?
• Testing team will execute the test cases and report the bug if any defect is found.
• Testing team will retest the defects after development team will fix the same and close or reopen the defect as per the outcome of the defect retest.
• Testing team will run regression test suite manually or using any automation suite as per test plan document.

Question: What are the deliverables or Exit criteria of Test Execution phase?
• Test Execution report.
• Defect report.

Question: What are the Entry criteria of Test Closure phase?
• Test execution report should have agreed number of passed test cases as per test plan.
• Defect report should have all the details about all closed and open defects.
• Business team or client should be agreed on open defects as per their severity and criticality.

Question: What are the activities involved in Test Closure phase?
• Testing team will prepare Test Closure report which will have evaluation of test completion on the basis of test coverage, test cases status and overall defect report.
• Testing team will prepare Knowledge document as per their learning during whole testing process which can be utilized to improve the process for future releases.

Question: What are the deliverables or Exit criteria of Test Closure phase?
Answer: Test Closure report would be deliverable of “Test Closure” phase which will have details about “Test coverage, Test cases execution status and defect report”.