Software test life cycle models

Backtracking is not possible as requirements are constant. V Model As the name suggests, the testing and development life cycle run parallel, the one side of V is verification development and the other side is validation verification. Merits Designed for small and medium-sized projects. Better than waterfall model as it allows to test the software side by side.

V-model provides guidance that testing needs to begin as early as possible. It has four Test levels- component, integration, system, and acceptance testing. Defect tracking is easy. Demerits Lack of flexibility. Changing requirements at the later phase could cost high. High business and development risk. Prototype Model It is a smart and practical approach of SDLC, where a prototype is being made and implemented prior to the final product.

Merits Recommended to projects with uncertain requirements. Easy to track bugs. Prototyping makes it easier to visualize the final product.

Quick implementation and completion. Fewer investments. Demerits Dependency on the prototype is risky. Additional time is spent in testing the prototype as well. If one prototype goes wrong, so another has to be built, takes time, delays project. Consumes more time and money for building prototypes. Incremental Model As the name suggests, it is a method where the model is designed and built incrementally until the product is finished.

Merits Feedback from one phase provides information for next phase Very useful when more staffing is unavailable. Divides project into smaller parts and finishes off project early.

Demerits Communication and coordination is required in every step for changes made. Informal requests for improvement of each phase may lead to confusion.

Iterative Model Initially, the first version of the product has been developed according to the product specifications and if the requirement comes, then the newer versions will be deployed with the new set of iterations. Merits More flexible than the waterfall model. Testing and debugging are easy. Resolves risks before implementation. Demerits Rework takes place from one iteration to the next iteration Parallel activities may lead to misconceptions and miscommunications.

RAD Model Rapid application development RAD model is an adaptive software development model which adapts features of both prototyping and iterative models. Merits Encourages user feedback. Reduced development time. Integration from early stages leads to lesser issues.

Higher customer satisfaction. Demerits Suitable for projects with short deadlines. Less focus on documentation, hence unstructured. High dependency on modeling skills. Spiral Model The Spiral development model is iterative and contains the phases of the waterfall model.

Merits Testing several times gives a bug-free product. Issues and risks are more likely to be recognized in the early stages. The flexibility allows you to make changes till the last implementations. Big Data Expand child menu Expand. Live Project Expand child menu Expand. AI Expand child menu Expand. Toggle Menu Close. Search for: Search. Requirements Document available both functional and non functional Acceptance criteria defined.

Application architectural document available. Analyse business functionality to know the business modules and module specific functionalities. Identify all transactions in the modules. Identify all the user profiles. Identify types of tests to be performed. Signed off RTM Test automation feasibility report signed off by the client. Requirements Documents Requirement Traceability matrix. Test automation feasibility document.

Effort estimation document signed off. Create test cases, test design, automation scripts where applicable Review and baseline test cases and scripts Create test data. System Design and architecture documents are available Environment set-up plan is available. It helps to reduce the test cycle time and also enhance the product quality. As soon as the development phase is over, testing team is ready with test cases and start the execution.

This helps in finding bugs in the early phase. In this phase quality assurance team understands the requirements like what is to be tested. If anything is missing or not understandable then quality assurance team meets with the stakeholders to better understand the detail knowledge of requirement. Skip to content. Change Language. Complexities can pop up if testing lacks organization. The complexities may include unresolved bugs, undetected regression bugs, or in the worst case, a module that skipped testing because the deadline got closer.

Each phase of the STLC has a specific goal and deliverables. It involves the initiation, execution, and termination of the testing process. Your valuable software testers have to view, study, and analyze the available specifications and requirements. Certain requirements produce outcomes by feeding them with input data. These requirements are testable requirements. Testers study both functional and non-functional requirements.

After that, they have to pick out testable requirements. Activities in this phase include brainstorming for requirement analysis and identifying and prioritizing test requirements. They also include picking out requirements for both automated and manual testing.

There are a few things you have test even if not explicitly mentioned. These things are universal and should always be tested. But in the requirement analysis phase it about knowing more specific details about the product.

You need to learn how the product should be in its ideal state. This phase generates as deliverables a detailed requirements report, besides analysis of test automation feasibility.

Another important deliverable generated in this phase is a requirements traceability matrix. For instance, having traceability in the software development process means that the organization should be able to trace each commit in its codebase back to its original requirements. The RTM—requirements traceability matrix—is a document that allows the organization to connect various artifacts back to their requirements. When it comes to software testing, you want to be able to trace back testing activities to their original requirements.

That way, you reduce waste, by ensuring that every testing activity is connected to a requirement that generates value for the customer. The second step is test planning, and the QA team creates this plan after analyzing all the necessary testing requirements. They outline the scope and objectives after understanding the product domain.

The team then analyzes the risks involved and defines time schedules and testing environments to create a strategy. After that, management finalizes the tools and assigns roles and responsibilities to individuals. An approximate timeline is also defined by which the testing of each module should be completed.

The most important delivery generated in this step is the test plan, which is a document describing the motivation and details of the testing activities for a given project. Based on the test plan, testers design and develop test cases. Test cases should be extensive and should cover almost all the possible cases. All the applicable permutations and combinations should be gathered. You can prioritize these test cases by researching which of them are most common or which of them would affect the product the most.

Next comes the verification and validation of specified requirements in the documentation stage. Also, the reviewing, updating, and approval of automation scripts and test cases are essential processes of this stage. This phase also includes defining different test conditions with input data and expected outcomes. So, the main deliverables produced in this phase are the actual test cases organized in their test suites. Testing activities need certain environmental factors—such as servers, frameworks, hardware, and software—for executing developed test cases.

Software and hardware configuration, along with test data setup, are the main components of this phase. Hence it is important that your test environment covers all the environments that the user would use. The working of features also differ based on software and hardware requirements.