I was interested in learning more about how software testing works in the professional world on a software development team. Since we are learning about the crafting of software tests in our class, I thought it would be interesting to learn how the pieces are put together, like how developing requirements goes into crafting tests and then executing them. It’s an essential part of a software development team, of course, and I’m sure I’ll be doing plenty of it in my future. I found this resource: https://www.tutorialspoint.com/stlc/stlc_overview.htm from Tutorials Point that gave an overview of the “Software Testing Life Cycle” (STLC) which help put the pieces together for me.
First, what is the STLC? It deals strictly with testing and “starts as soon as requirements are defined… by stakeholders.” Sidenote, this reminds me of test-driven development, which, by my understanding, is a common practice in software development these days. The STLC consists of 7 parts. The first is requirement analysis, at which point the team analyzes the application under test (AUT) at a high level. Then comes test planning where a strategy for testing is devised. Then is test case designing which is applying the requirements and making tests according to the planning. Then is the test environment setup for integrated testing. This is the last step before actual testing. Next is test execution which yields defect reporting. This either validates tests or finds bugs. Last is test closure, where testing is finished and matrix, reports, and results are completed.
This was great to see the pieces come together. This very basic overview helps me see what working on software testing in the professional world would be like. Seeing a timeline also provides context for some of the things we’ve been learning in class.
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