What Is Software Testing Life Cycle And How Important Is It?

The Software Testing Life Cycle (STLC) is a series of particular tasks carried out throughout the testing process to guarantee that software quality objectives are accomplished. STLC includes both validation and verification steps.

Contrary to common opinion, testing is not the only action involved in software testing. It consists of a sequence of steps taken methodically to support the certification of your software application. STLC stands for the Software Testing Life Cycle.

What Are The STLC Entry And Exit Criteria?

In a perfect world, you wouldn't go on to the next level unless the departure requirements for the one before it were satisfied. However, in reality, this is not always feasible. As a result, the activities and deliverables for the various STLC life cycle stages will be the main emphasis of this lesson. Let's examine them in more depth.

COPYRIGHT_TN: Published on https://www.testernews.com/software-testing-life-cycle/ by James Davis on 2022-09-29T09:25:02.573Z

Entry Criteria

In the entry criteria, there is a list of the things that must be done before testing can begin.

Exit Criteria

The Exit Criteria lists the requirements that must be satisfied before testing is declared complete.

What Is The Role Of The Software Testing Life Cycle?

Following are the Role of the Software Testing Life Cycle:

An STLC Helps Teams

• Improve the consistency and efficiency of the agile testing process.
• Specify the expectations and goals for each project component in detail.
• Apply time constraints to project testing.
• Before adding further features, make sure that each one has been tested and is functioning properly.
• Check to see whether the project's criteria are satisfied.

A Framework For The Software Testing Life Cycle Frequently Includes The Following Activities

• Analysis of the system requirements for clients and stakeholders.
• By building a traceability matrix (a document that determines project completeness by comparing requirements with features)
• Identifying the types of testing and methodologies required for each feature
• Prioritization of the desired attributes
• Analysis of automatable task types
• Identification of environmental information

Some Advantages Of STLC Include

• During the development cycle, testing is moved to the left. This makes sure that feature spec clarity and relevant test design are both met.
• Systematic testing speeds up the testing process and helps teams find and fix problems more quickly.
• Since testing is carried out with well-defined objectives and phases, project progress can be monitored more easily.

Phases Of STLC

The phases of the software testing life cycle are listed below.

Requirement Analysis

The first stage of the software testing life cycle is requirement analysis (STLC). The quality assurance team is aware of the requirements, such as what will be tested, throughout this phase. The quality assurance team interacts with the stakeholders to better understand the requirements in depth if anything is missing or not clear.

Test Planning

The most productive stage of the software testing life cycle is test planning when all test strategies are laid out. The testing team manager determines the projected cost and effort for the testing activity during this phase. Once the requirement collection phase is over, this phase begins.

Test Case Development

After the test planning step is finished, the test case development phase begins. The testing team records specific test cases during this phase. The testing team also prepares the necessary test data. The quality assurance team reviews the test cases after they have been prepared.

Test Environment Setup

The setting of the test environment is crucial to the STLC. In essence, the test environment establishes the parameters in which software is tested. The creation of test cases might be begun concurrently with this autonomous activity. The testing team is not involved in this procedure. The testing environment is created by either the developer or the client.

Test Execution

Test case development and test environment setup are followed by the test execution step. In this phase, the testing team begins running test cases that were prepared in the preceding phase.

Test Closure

This is the step in the STLC's analysis of the testing procedure.

STLC Vs SDLC How Do They Differ?

The Software Development Life Cycle and Software Testing Life Cycle have separate objectives and standards, even though they both pertain to software development and have overlapping schedules. STLC can be carried either in conjunction with SDLC stages or as a set of steps inside the SDLC cycle.

The main distinction is that SDLC is in charge of gathering requirements and developing features as a result. In the meantime, STLC is in charge of developing tests customized to the gathered criteria and confirming that features comply with them.

While it's frequently acceptable for the SDLC to produce features that do tasks outside their scope, the STLC places an unneeded load on the team if its tests perform tasks beyond their scope.

The collaboration of stakeholders, DevOps, and testing teams are necessary for both life cycles. Without this cooperation, you can't be sure that the requirements are set correctly, that the tests are useful, or that the results are implemented correctly.

People Also Ask

What Is The Software Testing Life Cycle?

During the testing process, a set of specific steps called the Software Testing Life Cycle (STLC) are taken to make sure that software quality goals are met.

How Do STLC And SDLC Differ?

STLC can be applied as a series of steps inside the SDLC cycle or in combination with SDLC stages.

What Is The STLC Entry Criteria?

There is a list of the requirements that must be met before testing can start under the admission criteria.

Conclusion

The importance of testing in software development is demonstrated by the fact that the closest point of convergence occurs during the "Test Execution" stage. There is a clear link between the Software Testing Life Cycle and the Software Production Life Cycle at all stages of making software products since some of their phases have the same names and similar meanings.

About The Authors

James Davis - James Davis keeps you updated daily with the best shopping tricks, hacks, and frugal living tips that you won’t find anywhere else. He also talks and writes about creative ways to save money, job opportunities like clever ways to make money from home, great jobs for teens, and online jobs that pay well. James also enjoys working on Social Media campaigns for major brands. He believes in creating a personal relationship between the brand and its consumers. He is very much into taking the corporate out of the brand and bringing it down to the level where consumers can feel comfortable interacting and taking the brand seriously.