Software Testing Life Cycle

The development process is known as SDLC — Software Development Life Cycle, within the SDLC there’s a Testing process called STLC — Software Testing Life Cycle.

STLC (Software Testing Life Cycle) is a process or testing strategy that contains a series of activities during the testing process to meet software quality standards efficiently. Unlike the general opinion that software testing is not just a single activity, i.e. Testing. STLC involves both verification and validation activities.

STLC Phases

Software Testing Life Cycle consists of 6 phases, each with definite Entry and Exit criteria, Activities and Deliverables associated with it. Entry criteria give the prerequisite items that must be completed before testing can begin. Exit criteria define the items that must be completed before testing can be concluded. Activities and Deliverables define what actions are performed and what the expected result is. In an ideal process, the testing team can’t go to the next phase until the

STLC Phases

Phase 1: Requirement Analysis

During this phase, feature requirements collected in the SDLC process are evaluated to identify testable aspects. The testing team studies requirements from the testing POV and if necessary, they may need to consult with stakeholders to clarify requirements.

• Entry criteria: documented requirement, acceptance criteria
• Activities: Identify types of tests to be performed, gather details about testing priorities and focus, prepare Requirement Traceability matrix (RTM), analysis environment where tetsing is supposed to be carried out.
• Exit criteria and deliverables: approved RTM, automation feasibility report

Phase 2: Test Planning

During this phase, the test strategy is outlined in a test plan document. The test strategy includes testing steps, tools needed, and roles & responsibilities. Moreover test environment, test limitations and the testing schedule are also determined.

• Entry criteria: requirement analysis, RTM, automation feasibility report
• Activities: Preparation of test plan/strategy document for various types of testing, test effort estimation, resource planning and determining roles and responsibilities.
• Exit criteria and deliverables: approved test plan include timelines and risk analysis.

Phase 3: Test Case Development

During this phase, the testing team initiate the development of test cases. The development involves creation, verification and rework of test cases & test scripts after the test plan is ready. Each case defines test inputs, procedures, execution conditions, and anticipated results.

• Entry criteria: approved test plan including timelines and risk analysis.
• Activities: create testcases, automation scripts (if applicable), review and baseline test cases and scripts.
• Exit criteria and deliverables: approved test cases and scripts.

Phase 4: Environment Setup

During this phase, testing environment are decided and configured. This phase consist of software, hardware and network that support the test execution. Once the environment is setup, the smoke test

• Entry criteria: system design and project architecture definitions.
• Activities: Setup environment, prepare software, hardware and network, do smoke test.
• Exit criteria and deliverables: environment ready to setup, smoke test result.

Phase 5: Test Execution

During this phase, the testing team ready to test the features that are already build in the environment. The process consist of test execution, bug reporting and test script maintenance.

• Entry criteria: all exit criteria from previous phase
• Activities: test execution, bug reporting, documenting test result, retest bug fixes, and test script improvement and maintenance.
• Exit criteria and deliverables: Complete RTM, test cases updated with results.

Phase 6: Test Case Closure

The last phase of STLC is completion of test execution which test result report is prepared. The report is consist of summarize the entire testing process like test completion reporting, comparison between expected and actual result, defect founds, test coverage.

• Entry criteria: test results and all document or logging from previous phase.
• Activities: prepare test closure report, evaluate cycle completion criteria based on — Time, Test coverage, Cost, Software Quality,
• Exit criteria and deliverables: delivered test closure report.