STLC is a series of specific activities performed during testing to satisfy certain software programs, quality programs, and quality objectives. It verifies whether the software meets the needs and requirements. Its purpose is to validate that this STLC testing provides a high-quality and stable application for the user's end-to-end testing experience.

What Is Software Testing Life Cycle (STLC)?

The software testing life cycle (STLC) is a sequence of specific activities performed during the testing process to provide high-quality software. Unlike the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), which is used for building software, STLC is used for testing the software. STLC is mainly concerned with verifying and validating the software through integration and functional testing to ensure it meets the requirements.

Importance of Understanding The Software Testing Life Cycle (STLC)

It is important to understand STLC for several reasons, such as quality assurance that the software meets quality standards. It also saves time by clearly defining the project testing deadlines and properly documenting project details such as goals and objectives.

That’s why we use software testing tools and frameworks such as vStellar Test, Cypress, Selenium that help us during software testing for risk management such as early identification of the issues. It is cost-effective as it reduces the cost of fixing defects by identifying them early in the development process.

Entry and Exit Criteria in STLC?

Entry Criteria lists the prerequisite items that must be completed before the test begins. Before starting the STLC phases, all details should be mentioned in the documents, such as complete test plans for developing and executing the test.

Exit Criteria defines the items that must be completed before testing can be concluded. It must conclude all the tasks, such as documentation that should be done before moving to the next phase.

6 Phases of Software Testing Life Cycle (STLC)

6 phases of STLC

The Software Testing Life Cycle consists of 6 phases with entry and exit criteria that are:

1) Requirement Analysis

In this phase, the quality assurance team understands the requirements, also known as the Requirements traceability matrix (RTM). A quality assurance team or software testers meet with the stakeholder's team to better understand the detailed requirements knowledge.

2) Test Planning

The RTM and feasibility report team will Calculate the estimated effort and cost for the testing work, such as how many days are needed to complete this task. All estimate documents will made in this and all types of testing will done, such as security testing, functional testing, and performance testing. The team will exit from this phase when the test strategy documents and effort estimation document become ready.

3) Test Case Development

The team prepares the required test data and scripts for the testing and conducts a test case review. This phase is crucial for both manual and automation testing, as the QA team calculates the estimated cost resources to initiate the testing and exits the phase by defining the cost analysis of the complete project.

4) Test Environment Setup

The test environment decides the conditions on which software is tested and checks its efficiency. The testing team is not involved. Either the developer or the customer creates the testing environment. The entry criteria for this phase are system architecture details and exit criteria for a fully prepared test environment ready to run the approved test cases.

5) Test Execution

The QA Team started executing test cases to check the application's quality based on the earlier step's prepared test cases. They compared the results to identify which areas had bugs and needed improvement. This phase's RTM was completed with the execution status, and the test cases were updated with the results.

6) Test Cycle Closure

This is the last stage of STLC in which the testing process is analyzed. It involves summarizing the testing activities and comparing the actual and required test results, such as project objectives, cost estimation, and identifying issues. The entry criteria for this phase are test results, and the exit criteria are the test-approved test results report and design.

Testing Lifecycle Automation

How does vStellar Test automate its software testing life cycle? Here are the steps:

1) Test Case Development

Test case development involves creating and writing test cases for different features and scenarios. This means writing down the steps to check if each part of your application works as expected. With vStellar Test, you can easily manage and adjust these test cases as needed and catch issues early.

2) Test Environment Configuration

Prepare your testing environment with vStellar Test by setting up the prerequisites. Manage user environments to meet testing needs, configure the reporting portal for tracking and documenting results, and customize browser settings and environments for accurate testing. Tailor specific configurations and settings before executing tests to check everything runs correctly.

3) Test Execution

vStellar Test’s framework handles variances in test execution, ensuring consistent and accurate results. API Testing in vStellar Test offers fast API testing capabilities to verify APIs' functionality, reliability, performance, and security. In UI Testing, vStellar Test provides comprehensive UI testing features to check the usability and functionality of your user interfaces.

In Performance Testing, stellar assesses the responsiveness, speed, and stability under various conditions. vStellar Test is an all-in-one framework that provides a comprehensive way to run multiple testing types and get detailed analytics and CI/CD support. It also integrates easily with third-party tools and services like:

Jenkins for CI/CD.
Jira for issue tracking.
Slack for notifications.
Various cloud services for environment provisioning.

4) Test Closure

vStellar Test generates and distributes various reports, such as test summary reports, which provide an overview of the testing process and outcomes. It also provides a defect report, which offers detailed information on identified defects. Then it gives you a performance report, which analyzes system performance under test conditions, and a compliance report to check if the system adheres to standards and regulations.

Are You Ready To Experience the Power of vStellar Test

Tired of spending rigorous hours on manual testing? It’s time to bring vStellar Test’s prowess in QA automation into your world. Enjoy easy test setup, smooth execution, and detailed reports all in one platform. Working with vStellar Test is a smooth ride as you can get all your API, UI, Functional, and Performance testing done with third party integrations.

Try vStellar Test today and see how it can improve your software testing life cycle!

vStellar Test Guide | 6 Phases of Software Testing Life Cycle (STLC)

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