Plan Your Software Testing Life Cycle for Total Coverage

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Preparation turns big problems into little ones, and it turns bug problems into little sprints.

When viewed from afar—as a single, monolithic step in your overall software development process—testing an entire application can seem overwhelming. How do you properly account for every potential execution, for every combination of platform, purpose, and user? Or for every practical real-world contingency?

And how do you cover all that without exceeding your resources or breeching your deadline?

The answer is to break down the process into deliberate, incremental steps within a defined software testing life cycle. By understanding the whole as a series of connecting steps, you can accurately allocate resources, clearly target core functionality and streamline the test phase to produce better products, faster.

The software testing life cycle takes a complex process and breaks it down into logical, easy-to-achieve goals that lead you, piece by piece, toward the best version of your application. It replaces big problems with small solutions.

Strategize Around Your Software Testing Life Cycle

The software testing life cycle is a product development recipe. Just as you would not place raw flour in the oven before adding the eggs and milk that round out the cake — you do not want to leave out any steps of the STLC and risk its potential value.

Each step builds on the previous as you narrow your focus from broad scoping down to individual test case execution and reporting. Planning and resource allocation comes first in your test strategy, and the decisions you make early define the effectiveness of the actual test cases you execute later.

The process flows like this:

Requirement Analysis

Define your business goals and the framework needed to ensure the product meets these goals; essentially, we are deciding what needs to be tested and how.

Test Planning

Assemble a comprehensive test strategy of the different types of testing required and how and when they will be executed. Here, we make decisions between manual and automated testing, the allocation of outsourced and development resources, tool selection and workflow and communication standards.

Test Case Development

Test data is prepared, and test cases that prioritize the end-user experience and the product goals as defined earlier are written. We aim to create simple, transparent test cases that produce the same results every time with smooth monitoring.

Environment Setup

This is the practical design and configuration of the tools and hardware that will be used to execute the test cases. We want to ensure that tests can be executed in parallel, that data flow is optimized and secure and that reports are actionable by a wide range of stakeholders.

Test Execution

Test execution is where the development rubber meets the testing road, and our code is measured against expected results. We want to ensure comprehensive testing, using the most appropriate and resource-efficient means possible. Hence, the exhaustive planning effort applied in advance.

Evaluation and Reporting

This covers your test results and the reality of how your product delivers against its purpose. We need a comprehensive and actionable understanding of how the product will perform for the user so we can deliver the best possible experience.

Test Cycle Closure

This last step is a doozy and provides a valuation of the test process in terms of delivered quality, resource efficiency, test coverage and goal realization. We want an unbiased assessment of the value we derived from the test configuration to inform future test executions.

By following these steps in sequence, we reduce the huge challenge of preparing a product for the market down to an easily realized process of planning, execution, and evaluation.

With repetition and experience of the process, you gain an insight into the software testing life cycle that helps you get things right every time.

Get Your STLC Right the First Time

There is no skill more valuable than experience and none harder to acquire. Through the execution of more than a million test cases and billions of dollars worth of successful customer exits, our engineers learned how to optimize the software testing life cycle to deliver comprehensive testing at maximum efficiency.

Engaging an outsourced QA expert gives you someone to help plan your test phase and to turn to when things go wrong. Among a range of advantages, an expert partner can:

• Use their domain expertise to create a software testing life cycle that delivers against industry and user standards.
• Select the optimal framework and tools for your unique product.
• Quickly scale production only when needed within your release cycle.
• Incorporate testing within an Agile environment that integrates development and QA into a series of short sprints and evolving product iterations.

Further Reading

Developing a Testing Strategy With the Automation Testing Life Cycle

The Lifecycle of Agile Testing

Customer-First Software Development Lifecycle