What Is Software Testing Life Cycle (STLC)

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What is Software Testing Life Cycle (STLC)?

Just like developers follow the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) likewise testers also follow the Software Testing Life Cycle which is called as STLC life cycle.
The Software Testing Life Cycle (STLC) is a testing process that is executed in a sequence.
In this software testing life cycle also, we do have some phases which are shown below:
Each of the steps mentioned above has some Entry Criteria (it is a minimum set of conditions to enter any phase) as well as Exit Criteria (a minimum set of conditions to exit from any phase).

Tester analyses the requirement document of SDLC (Software Development Life Cycle) to examine the requirements stated by the client.
After examining the requirements, the tester makes a test plan.

Test plan creation is the crucial phase of the Software Testing Life Cycle (STLC) where all the testing strategies are defined.
The tester determines the estimated effort and cost of the entire project.
This phase takes place after the successful completion of the requirement analysis phase.
Test activities (Test case design and test case execution) can be started after the successful completion of Test Plan Creation.
Lead or PM implements test plan.
The Project Manager (PM) prepares the test team.
The project manager (PM) or Lead distribute task or work to all team members.
In planning – estimations and resource planning are done. Estimation like which resource will work and till when that resources need to work on one requirement is an estimation.

The Test Case Development Phase involves the creation, verification, and rework of test cases & test scripts after the test plan is ready. Initially, the Test data is identified then created and reviewed, and then reworked based on the preconditions. Then the QA team starts the development process of test cases for individual units.
Test Case Development Activities

a. Create test cases, automation scripts

b. Review and baseline test cases and scripts

c. Create test data

a. Test cases/scripts

b. Test data

Setup of the test environment is an independent activity and can be started along with Test Case Development.
This is an essential part of the manual testing procedure as without an environment, test execution is not possible.
The testing team is not involved in setting up the testing environment, it’s senior developers who create it.

Test case Execution can be done after the successful completion of test case design and planning.
In this phase, the testing team starts execution activity for the test cases.
The testing team makes the status and actual results in the test case document after execution.
If any test case fails in execution then testers logged a bug against those failed test cases.
RTM (Requirement Traceability Matrix) is also prepared in this phase. The requirement Traceability Matrix is the industry-level format, used for tracking requirements and test cases. Each test case is mapped with the requirement specification.

Test documentation is a report of testing.
Once the testing is completed the tester makes a document for testing i.e. report also we can say.
The tester sends this document to the team leader or sometimes to complete the team.
The team leader sends this document to PM and PM sends it to the customer.