The five fundamental test process listed above can be applied at any phase of testing such as Component testing, Integration testing, functional system testing, non-functional system testing, and acceptance testing.

 

Test Planning

Determines the scope of testing.

Should be based on and derived from requirements documentation.

Defines the business processes to be tested.

Defines the non-functional attributes to be tested.

Assigns business risk to business processes.

Identifies approach to testing

Identifies test techniques to be used.

Determines the entry and exit criteria.

Determines the coverage required.

Determines the test environment

Identifies all exceptions to the test strategy.

 

Test Specification

This is the design of test cases.

The use of test techniques defined within the test planning.

An analysis stage to determine what is to be tested by: -

·         Performing a functional decomposition of system under test.

·         Identify test conditions for each business function.

·         Identifying order of importance.

A design stage to determine how to achieve testing of what should be tested by: -

·         Creation of test specification hierarchy.

·         Creating constructive test cases.

·         Making use of all test conditions identified.

 

Test Execution

This is the actual execution of the identified tests.

It is also the identification and execution of the test that have been scheduled to run.

It is dependent on the release of software and what is contained within it.

 

Test Recording

This is the actual recording of what happened when we run a test.

·         The version of software being executed.

·         The actual outcome of the test.

·         The comparison of the actual outcome against the expected outcome.

·         The identification of fault if the actual outcome differ from the expected outcome.

·         Determination of the reason for occurrence of fault.

·         Logging of the fault.

·         Accessing the impact of the fault.

·         Recording the failure of the test.

 

Checking for completion

The test criteria for test completion will be laid out in the test plan. It will be the exit criteria of the test and is usually the last step within the test case.

The test coverage required would be determined in the earlier planning specification stages.

There is quite a high probability that faults will be found during testing. This in turn means that the fault will need to be fixed and the tests repeated. It may be necessary for this iteration to be repeated several times before testing is deemed complete.