Why You Need a Software Testing Life Cycle (STLC)
So you’ve written your app: what’s next? After your software has been developed, the next step is the Software Testing Life Cycle. Software testing is not just a single activity but rather a defined set of steps and stages in the testing of your software. In order to ensure consistency and reliability of testing, automated software testing software should be utilised where possible.
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But why test? As highlighted by the British Computer Society, software is written by humans and they make mistakes. So you need a defined set of steps to determine any errors that may have been overlooked.
These steps make up the Software Testing Life Cycle (STLC).
Requirements
The software is tested to ensure the defined requirements are met. For example, the requirements of EPOS Software is to provide a point of sale; therefore the testing requirements should include processing sales, refunds, orders, etc.
Test Planning
This is the planning the testing processes, and it involves determining what tools or resources are needed and preparing a testing plan strategy document.
Test Designing – Test Case Development
This is involves creating test cases that will require execution as part of the defined strategy and if required, automation scripts as well as test data.
Test Environment Set-up
The test environment is the hardware and software configuration that will be used to test the software, and this environment should match the live or end-user environment (with the same hardware and same operating system versions).
Test Execution
This is the undertaking of the tests defined in the test planning using the test cases and test data. Results will be documented.
Test Closure and Reporting
This involves preparing and providing reports as to the testing outcomes for stakeholders.
Humans make mistakes, and in order to ensure software testing is as valid and constructive as possible, any tests that are repetitive should, where possible, be automated or scripted. http://www.mytesters.com/ are providers of automated software testing.
Providing thorough testing is helped by simplifying as much of the testing as possible using automated testing tools. Such tools are capable of executing tests, reporting on outcomes and comparing results with earlier tests results. They can also be used to carry our tests repeatedly and systematically at any time of day.
