Software Testing LifeCycle(STLC), V-MODEL


Software Test Life Cycle:

Software Testing Life Cycle(STLC) identifies what test activities to carry out to accomplish quality assurance process in a software development project.
There are different kinds of software development life cycle(SDLC) such as Waterfall, Spiral, Agile, and many others. Software testing has its own life cycle that intersects with every stage of the SDLC either it is Waterfall, Spiral or Agile. However, STLC varies from one to another based on size of project, test team, test in Scope/out of scope, and code release date (how frequently). So, knowledge about some of the major phase in STLC, quality assurance activities during phases and role of a tester, makes you always ready to accomplish your task with a mark. This picture describes one of widely used STLC phases.
Generally STLC for a single test cycle consists of phases: 1) Planning, 2) Analysis, 3) Design, 4) Initial Testing 5) Testing Cycles, 6) Final Testing and Implementation and 7) Post release

Planning : Some QA activities during planning phase.
  • High level test plan 
  • Identify review process, Metrics 
  • Bug reporting procedures 
  • Acceptance criteria for QA 
  • schedule
    Analysis Phase: Some QA activities during analysis phase.
    • Develop Test Case format , Validation Matrix
    • Develop, and plan Test Cycles matrices and time lines
    • Begin writing Test Cases based on Functional Validation matrix
    • Map baseline data to test cases to business requirements
    • Identify Automation, Manual and Types of testing ,
    • Test environment, automation system setup.
    Design :Some QA activities during design phase.
    • Test -plan(ning) review and verify.
    • Review matrix (coverage).
    • Continue working on Test Cases.(update, new )
    • Finalize test case selection for each cycle for manual run and automation.
    Initial Testing
    • Complete all plans, Test Case, scripting
    • Unit test (Automated?)
    Test Cycle:
    • Test Cycle 1, run first set of test
    • Report bugs - Triage(bug verification)- Bug fixes - Regression
    • Add test cases as required
    • Test Cycle 2, 3 ...
    Final Testing and Implementation :
    • Code Freeze
    • Run Test cases for including performance level .
    • Communicate defect tracking metrics.
    • Regression
    • Documents.
    Post Release
    • Evaluation meeting - lesson learned
    • Prepare final Defect Report and metrics. Develop strategies to prevent similar problems in future project.
    • Milestones for improvements
    • Environment clean-up.clean (tag and archive tests and data for that release) restore test machines to baseline for next test cycle
    ========================================================================


    V-model



    Although variants of the V-model exist, a common type of V-model uses four test levels, corresponding to the four development levels. The four levels frequently used  are:
    Component (Unit) Testing;
    Integration Testing;
    System Testing;
    Acceptance Testing.
    In practice, a V-model may have more, fewer or different levels of development and testing, depending on the project and the software product. For example, there may be Component-Integration Testing after Component Testing, and System-Integration Testing after System Testing. Software work products (such as business scenarios or use cases, requirements specifications, design documents and code) produced during development are often the basis of testing in one or more test levels. References for generic work products include Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) or ‘Software life cycle processes’. Verification and validation (and early test design) can be carried out during the development of the software work product

    10 comments:

    Anonymous said...

    Kinda liked it.
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    :>)BHOJE

    Anonymous said...

    good job!. keep it up!

    Software testing videos said...

    Excellent post, this is really helpful. I'm new to software testing and really appreciate the read. I've been reading about software development and software's life cycle in a few sites now, and I find the info here to be so very useful. Thanks again.

    itzmyblogs said...

    really a knowledgeable post about V- Model.

    itzmyblogs said...

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    Anonymous said...

    really a knowledgeable post about V- Model?

    I don't think it is explained about the V model. How these components are related? what are arrows in the middle and what these arrows represents?

    Anonymous said...

    "V-model uses four test levels, corresponding to the four development levels.........I think it is true

    Unknown said...

    This is a good article on the SDLC model. I also recommend you to read

    Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)

    Software Testing Companies said...

    It’s a very useful & qualitative information shared about V- Model.
    Indeed a great share.

    Ariell Esettle said...

    Excellent post. I'm new to software testing and really appreciate your efforts. Very informative content. I have read many articles on SDLC by far this is the most helpful to me. Thanks for sharing this and keep up the good work.