Software Testing Life Cycle

Software testing life cycle identifies what test activities to carry out and when (what is the best

time) to accomplish those test activities. Even though testing differs between organizations, there

is a testing life cycle.

Software Testing Life Cycle consists of six (generic) phases:

• Test Planning,

• Test Analysis,

• Test Design,

• Construction and verification,

• Testing Cycles,

• Final Testing and Implementation and

• 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/deal with software testing – Manual,

Automated and Performance.

Test Planning

1.Project Manager has to decide what things need to be tested, do I have the appropriate budget

etc.

2. Naturally proper planning at this stage would greatly reduce the risk of low quality software.

3. This planning will be an ongoing process with no end point.

4. high level test plan-(according to IEEE test plan template The Software Test Plan (STP) is

designed to prescribe the scope, approach, resources, and schedule of all testing activities.

5. 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

1.decides what types of testing should be carried out at different stages of SDLC, do we need or

plan to automate, if yes then when the appropriate time to automate is, what type of specific

documentation I need for testing.

 2. Proper and regular meetings should be held between testing teams, project managers,

development teams, Business Analysts to check the progress of things 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

4. start creating test case formats and test cases itself.

5. In this stage we 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

6. Begin review of documentation, i.e. Functional Design, Business Requirements, Product

Specifications, Product Externals etc.

Test Design

1.Test plans and cases which were developed in the analysis phase are revised.

2.Functional validation matrix is also revised and finalized.

3.In this stage risk assessment criteria is developed.

4. If you have thought of automation then you have to select which test cases to automate and

begin writing scripts for them.

Construction and verification

1. In this phase we have to complete all the test plans, test cases, complete the scripting of the

automated test cases, Stress and Performance testing plans needs to be completed.

2. bug reporting would be done as when the bugs are found. Unit and Integration tests are

performed and errors (if any) are reported.

Testing Cycles

1. In this phase we have to complete testing cycles until test cases are executed without errors

or a predefined condition is reached.

2. 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

1. documentation for testing is completed / updated

2. Stress,Performance Acceptance, load and recovery testing will be conducted and the

application needs to be verified under production conditions.

Post Implementation

1. In this phase, the testing process is evaluated and lessons learnt from that testing process are

documented.

2. Line of attack to prevent similar problems in future projects is identified.

3. Create plans to improve the processes.

4. The recording of new errors and enhancements is an ongoing process.

5. Cleaning up of test environment is done and test machines are restored to base lines in this

stage.

Software Testing Life Cycle

Phase Activities Outcome

Planning Create high level test plan Test plan, Refined Specification

Analysis Create detailed test plan, Functional Revised Test Plan, Functional

Validation Matrix, test cases validation matrix, test cases

Design test cases are revised; select which revised test cases, test data sets,

test cases to automate sets, risk assessment sheet

Construction test procedures/Scripts, Drivers, test

scripting of test cases to automate,
results, Bugreports.

Testing cycles complete testing cycles Test results, Bug Reports

execute remaining stress and

Test results and different metrics on
Final testing performance tests, complete
test efforts
documentation

Plan for improvement of testing

Post implementation Evaluate testing processes
process
 What is BVT?

Build Verification test is a set of tests run on every new build to verify that build is testable
before it is released to test team for further testing. These test cases are core functionality test
cases that ensure application is stable and can be tested thoroughly. Typically BVT process is
automated. If BVT fails that build is again get assigned to developer for fix.

BVT is also called smoke testing or build acceptance testing (BAT)

New Build is checked mainly for two things:

• Build validation
• Build acceptance

• Life cycle of Bug:

• 1) Log new defect
When tester logs any new bug the mandatory fields are:
 Build version, Submit On, Product, Module, Severity, Synopsis and Description to
Reproduce
• .
• .
• Bug status description:
These are various stages of bug life cycle. The status caption may vary depending on the
bug tracking system you are using.
• 1) New: When QA files new bug.
• 2) Deferred: If the bug is not related to current build or can not be fixed in this release or
bug is not important to fix immediately then the project manager can set the bug status as
deferred.
• 3) Assigned: ‘Assigned to’ field is set by project lead or manager and assigns bug to
developer.
• 4) Resolved/Fixed: When developer makes necessary code changes and verifies the
changes then he/she can make bug status as ‘Fixed’ and the bug is passed to testing team.
• 5) Could not reproduce: If developer is not able to reproduce the bug by the steps given
in bug report by QA then developer can mark the bug as ‘CNR’. QA needs action to
check if bug is reproduced and can assign to developer with detailed reproducing steps.
• 6) Need more information: If developer is not clear about the bug reproduce steps
provided by QA to reproduce the bug, then he/she can mark it as “Need more
information’. In this case QA needs to add detailed reproducing steps and assign bug
back to dev for fix.
• 7) Reopen: If QA is not satisfy with the fix and if bug is still reproducible even after fix
then QA can mark it as ‘Reopen’ so that developer can take appropriate action.
• 8 ) Closed: If bug is verified by the QA team and if the fix is ok and problem is solved
then QA can mark bug as ‘Closed’.
• 9) Rejected/Invalid: Some times developer or team lead can mark the bug as Rejected or
invalid if the system is working according to specifications and bug is just due to some
misinterpretation

Models

Advantages and Disadvantages of V Model

The Verification and Validation model commonly known as V Model is considered to be
an
Extension of the Waterfall model.

This is because just like the waterfall model, it’s a

Well structured method in which the different phases progress in a sequential or linear
way.That means each phase begins only after the completion of the previous phase.

An important aspect of this model is that testing activities like planning, test designing
happens well before coding. The advantage is that it saves ample amount of time and
since
the testing team is involved early on, they develop a very good understanding of the
project at the very beginning.

The biggest disadvantage of V-model is that it’s very rigid and the least flexible.
If any changes happen mid way, not only the requirements documents but also the test
documentation needs to be updated.
Even with these disadvantages, it’s the most favored
software development process as it’s simple and easy to use.

Advantages and Disadvantages of water fall Model