STLC – Software Testing Life cycle

Software Testing Life cycle (STLC)

The cycle of different activities involved in testing process is called STLC which includes below 6 phases:

i) Requirement Analysis:
• Testers will identify and analyse the testable requirement from SRS (Software Requirement Specification) document.
• Testing team will clear all the doubts with Business team/stakeholder and report if any ambiguity found in requirements from testing point of you.
• Testing scope is decided from this phase.
• Requirements can be functional or non-functional.
• Automation feasibility is also done at this stage only.
• Type of testing is also identified in this phase only.
• Testing environment details will be identified in this phase.
• Entry criteria for Requirement analysis phase is to have documented software requirement specifications and planned architecture of the product.
• Exit criteria/deliverables of Requirement analysis phase is RTM (Requirement Traceability Matrix) and Automation analysis report if automation is feasibility.

ii) Test Planning
• Once Testing scope/ requirements is finalised next phase is to start test planning which is determined by Test mangers.
• 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.

iii) Test case design
• Testing team will prepare test cases and test data under this phase.
• Business team will review the test cases and provide feedback, testing team will fix if any review comments given.
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iv) 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.
v) 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.
vi) 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.