Decoding the Software Testing Life Cycle (STLC):Phases, Benefits, and Strategic Importance
Tags: softwaretestinglifecycle, softwaretesting, testinglifecycle
Published: 2024-02-02 04:16:10

## Software Testing Life Cycle & Various Phases | STLC
[Software Testing Life Cycle](https://www.headspin.io/blog/accelerate-testing-cycle-automation-testing), is a streamlined testing procedure executed in a specific sequence on a software application. Like SDLC or Software Development Life Cycle, it involves six different stages.

These phases can be run parallel to the development cycle or executed as the concluding step of the development life cycle procedure, depending on the method used for software development. This course is carried out to substantiate and authenticate the software application compared to the business requirement.

## Advantages of Software Testing Life Cycle
**Some benefits of STLC are as follows:-**

- The testing procedure is designed methodically and meaningfully to ensure that the feature specifications are precise.
- Systematic testing is carried out. It leads to a quick testing process and enables teams to unveil and negotiate issues quickly.
- It is easier to follow the project’s progress since testing is carried out with well-defined objectives and in proper stages.

## Objectives of Software Testing Life Cycle
**Some general tasks included in an STLC framework are listed below:-**

- Analyzing the customer and stakeholder demands regarding the system or software
- Creating a traceability matrix. It is a document that compares markets with features to determine the design’s accuracy and wholeness.
- Identifying the testing approaches required for each feature
- Prioritizing the features that need to be targeted
- Assaying the degree of automation that can be applied at every stage

## Steps of Software Testing Life Cycle

**1. Requirement Analysis**
This is the premier step of the entire software testing life cycle. Requirements analysis is essential because it is the root phase of all software testing procedures. Any mistake in requirements analysis will lead to incorrect software delivery to the customer.

Once the necessities of the software are fixed, the QA team determines the components of the system to be tested. In this stage, QA teams first appreciate the demands of the software to pinpoint the features that require through testing.

For additional disposition of the requisite, QA teams meet different groups like stakeholders, business organizations, technical teams, design teams, and development teams.

**2. Test Planning**
The second phase of STLC is Test planning. In this stage, the QA teams decide what they require to complete the test smoothly and meet the aims. For this, the following steps should be considered:-

- Whether all features that need testing in a software or application are running on Kubernetes
- Do they need to test the scalability of the software or application?
- Number of users who will be allowed to access the software or application before scaling
- Amount of resources like processor and memory the software or application possesses before scaling.

Testers should assume all the probable testing scenarios as they gauge the above requirements and then plan their approach accordingly.

**3. Test Case Development**
It is the third stage of the software development lifecycle. After the QA team and testers plan their testing approach and finalize the features that should be tested, they determine the technical particulars and the software testing tools required for every test case. For instance, if it is imperative to deploy any portion to Kubernetes, the testers will need some automation codes and a Kubernetes manifest to proceed.

QA professionals usually look at several precise details while composing the test cases in this development stage. These are as follows:

- whether automation scripts are necessary or not
- The storage drive or cloud space for the automation script
- Professionals who need access to this storage
- The members who will stream the testing operation
- properly composed test cases.

**4. Test Environment Setup**
It is the fourth and the most vital step in this entire process. This phase of the software testing lifecycle requires the QA team and testers to ascertain where they will run the tests. Suppose they need a Kubernetes cluster for the testing procedure. The QA team must enact it accordingly to deploy it. Similarly, various other environments or setups are available for software or even [mobile app testing](https://www.headspin.io/solutions/mobile-app-testing).

Kubernetes is the painless and quickest platform for deploying a test environment among the available options. It is because QA professionals only require to do a little about the management and configuration of the underlying framework. The goal is to deploy an efficient testing environment, ensuring that it genuinely considers how users will interact with the software or application.

**5. Test Execution**
In this fifth step, all QA team members and testers should have shared access to the required scrips and the testing environment. However, it is not a good practice that all the members require to store the script on their computer drives. Instead, they must save the automation and other associated scripts in a shared cloud platform from where they can run these codes by a CI/ CD pipeline. In this process, all the members will access the report, run it, and see the results.

**6. Test Reporting**
In all forms of technology, an accurate report is everything. Likely, Test reporting is also the final stage of the STLC. Everyone, including vice presidents, directors, and all other stakeholders, will check test reports to acknowledge whether the software or application is performing as expected.

It is a business-centric aspect where the management will investigate the software performance and resolve how to move ahead. Generally, the following criteria are analyzed from the software report.

- Ease of deployment
- Any tweaks required in the coding schema
- Are any bugs or glitches still left

## Final Thoughts
Software Testing Life Cycle or STLC is a well-defined procedure that helps better organize an otherwise topsy-turvy approach. This streamlines the testing workflow with added efficiency. Various factors and testing tool demands need to be considered during every stage. Also, to ensure the highest level of testing and maximize productivity, Test automation should be implemented in place of manual tests. For delivering quality software and application, testing must be a priority and not just a mere option.

Original source: https://www.knowprogram.com/blog/software-testing-life-cycle-phases/