To thrive in the dynamic and highly competitive business world, you must make your customers happy and satisfied. However, if your software applications are defective or have bugs, they’ll put off customers. They will lose trust in your brand, decreasing engagement and revenue.
That’s where the Software Testing Life Cycle (STLC) becomes your savior. Integrating STLC in your software development phase ensures your software is of high quality, fulfills customers’ expectations, and provides them with a seamless user experience. This article further discussed the software testing life cycle, its phases, importance, and best practices.
The software testing lifecycle is a series of specific activities conducted during the testing process. These verification and validation activities help ensure that the software meets quality standards.
You should know that it’s not a one-step process. Instead, STLC is spread over different phases and involves various methodologies. The ultimate goal of the software testing life cycle is to identify and list any issues or defects in the software development process as early as possible.
Many people often confuse STLC with SDLC (Software Development Life Cycle) and use them interchangeably. However, this isn’t the case. STLC is actually a subset of SDLC and primarily focuses on testing. Let’s discuss them in detail to understand their differences:
Implementing a structured software testing life cycle has many benefits, including producing high-quality software, enhanced user experience, and compliance with software development cycle standards. Here’s a detailed explanation of all the advantages:
Introducing STLC early in the software development process ensures your software is reliable and high-quality. How? Testing allows you to check how the software performs in different environments.
For instance, you can perform cross-browser and multiple-device testing to evaluate software performance across different platforms and screen sizes. Then, you can optimize the software to meet these varied requirements.
Most importantly, STLC identifies all the bugs and defects early in development, making the software reliable and eliminating the need for extensive rework. This leads to both quality and cost savings in development.
Many industries, especially the healthcare and financial sectors, have strict regulations that software must meet. These standards and rules ensure safe and secure operations.
STLC is very helpful in this regard. Rigorous testing of software helps determine whether it complies with those standards
Depending on the findings, you can change the development process to achieve the required compliance, avoiding legal penalties and fines.
Customer experience can make or break your business image. Therefore, you must provide them with reliable and secure software solutions. STLC ensures this by applying various tests to the software.
It assures that the end product is bug-free, easy to use, and ready to meet and exceed customer expectations, resulting in a fantastic customer experience.
When customers are satisfied, they return for more and engage in positive word-of-mouth. Consequently, your business will see success and increased revenue.
STLC also plays a crucial role in improving the confidence of everyone involved in the software development process. It ensures that the software will perform as expected without any defects. As a result, developers, programmers, test analysts, and customers all feel happy and confident in the product.
Most importantly, the software testing life cycle equips your team with all the data they need for better risk management. They can work to eliminate any possible issues in the software so it works smoothly in the production environment.
The Software Testing Life Cycle (STLC) is a systematic approach encompassing six critical phases. Each phase is designed to ensure the software meets the highest quality standards and performs flawlessly. The six key phases of STLC are:
Let’s discuss these in detail.
The first and most important phase of the STLC is requirement analysis. In this phase, the testing team analyzes the SDLC requirements document and checks whether the software meets the set criteria.
If necessary, the testing analysts may also consult with stakeholders to clarify requirements, both functional and nonfunctional.
They then find out what aspects are testable and also decide whether there’s a need for automated testing. The entry criteria defined for this phase include planning the requirements for the test plan and documenting application architecture.
Test planning is the second and critical phase of STLC, in which the whole testing plan is outlined. The testing team also mentions the needed tools and the step-by-step process to follow. Everyone on the team is informed about their roles and responsibilities to ensure clarity.
Most importantly, this phase also lists the budget and resources that will be spent on testing. The entry criteria for the test planning phase involve preparing the testing environment, an overview of the testing schedule, and testing tools.
Test case development, as the name implies, is all about creating test cases. These test cases give you a glimpse into testing conditions, execution, and the results you should expect.
The testing team uses both manual and automated testing to cover all aspects or features of the software. Automated test cases are written separately for each phase, while the manual cases are listed in cheat sheets.
The test plan clearly outlines the testing environment that should be used, so you set it up in this phase. During this phase, you can rely on plenty of tools like Selenium, Katalon Studio, and Appium, as well as deploy test servers for continuous feedback and testing. Remember, the testing team doesn’t create the environment; instead, senior developers take care of this aspect.
In this phase, the test team executes test plans and starts case development. Tests are run, and detailed reports are made by comparing actual results with expected ones. This data is shared with the developers and quality assurance professionals so they can address any pitfalls in the software.
It’s the last phase of the software testing life cycle, where you prepare a detailed document with information about the complete testing process. This document guides all stakeholders through the timeline for each action, the cost of the test strategy, and the test results. All the defects are also listed so the development team can sort them, and the software is top-quality.
Now that you know the Software Testing Life Cycle and its phases, you must have come across the terms Entry and Exit Criteria. All STLC phases have entry and exit criteria associated with them. The former refers to the conditions or actions to complete before starting the testing process, while the latter refers to the actions you must fulfill before ending the testing.
Entry Criteria
Typically, entry criteria are the conditions that the testing team must perform before the start of a new phase of the software testing life cycle. The time interval or expected lead time for making the entry criteria items available is also defined.
Here are the points or entry criteria that should be considered before the starting of a new phase:
Input for Entry Criteria
Exit Criteria
The exit criteria of a software testing life cycle is sometimes a single document that marks the end of a specific phase. In simple words, exit criteria are the ongoing test activities you must complete before ending an STLC phase. The following points are considered as the exit criteria:
Output of Exit Criteria
Automation is important in the software testing life cycle as it speeds up the testing process, helps in regression testing, and improves overall software quality. Here is an overview of the advantages of automation in STLC:
Implementing a Software Testing Life Cycle (STLC) from the beginning of your development process is crucial for delivering high-quality software that meets customer expectations. At Hicron Software House, we excel in providing comprehensive software testing services tailored to your business needs.
Our experienced team conducts rigorous performance and functional testing to ensure your software is reliable, secure, and defects-free. With over 17 years of expertise, we are committed to delivering top-quality software solutions that help you stand out in a competitive market.
Contact us today to learn how we can help you achieve excellence in software development and quality assurance.
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