A sample testing cycle
Although variations exist between organizations there is a typical cycle for
testing:
Requirements Analysis: Testing should begin in the requirements phase
of the software development life cycle. During the design phase testers work
with developers in determining what aspects of a design are testable and with
what parameters those tests work.
Test planning: Test strategy Test plan Testbed creation. Since many
activities will be carried out during testing a plan is needed.
Test development: Test procedures Test scenarios Test cases Test
datasets Test scripts to use in testing software.
Test execution: Testers execute the software based on the plans and
tests and report any errors found to the development team.
Test reporting: Once testing is completed testers generate metrics
and make final reports on their test effort and whether or not the software
tested is ready for release.
Test result analysis: Or Defect Analysis is done by the development
team usually along with the client in order to decide what defects should be
treated fixed rejected (i.e. found software working properly) or deferred to
be dealt with later.
Defect Retesting: Once a defect has been dealt with by the development
team it is retested by the testing team.
Regression testing: It is common to have a small test program built of
a subset of tests for each integration of new modified or fixed software in
order to ensure that the latest delivery has not ruined anything and that the
software product as a whole is still working correctly.
Test Closure: Once the test meets the exit criteria the activities
such as capturing the key outputs lessons learned results logs documents
related to the project are archived and used as a reference for future projects.
