The Project Life Cycle in Software Testing

In case of a service based project (Service based projects are the ones where Software companies help other companies build and maintain System software for other clients) 

1. The need for a software system is identified and invitations are given for bidding from the client. 

2. Software companies bid for the projects. 

3. Best bid wins the project, once the financial matters are finalized. 

4. Technologies to be used are identified and Project team is set up. 

5. Project manager defines the process, strategy, time lines and other parameters and finalizes them after the review is made by the client. 

6. Roles and responsibilities are defined and procedures to be followed in the project are finalized. 

7. Business Analyst is responsible for communicating with the client and development and testing teams for the requirements. 

8. Requirement documents (High Level documents) are finalized after multiple reviews with the involvement of testing team. 

9. Use cases are written by Business Analyst. 

10. Design documents are prepared by development team and finalized after multiple reviews and acceptance. 

11. Testing team designs the Test Plan and test cases with the scenarios based on the requirement documents and use cases. 

12. Once the design is completed coding is done, once coding is done code review is done by senior developers. 

13. Once the code review is done, system is tested by QA 

14. After testing and defect fixes, once the application is behaving as expected and certified by QA, User acceptance testing is conducted. 

15. If any issues found same defects are fixed and testing is done by both QA and user again. 

16. Once system is certified system is pushed into production where it’s maintained and monitored. 

17. Enhancements/ Changes requested by clients or Hot fixes (Priority fixes required for major defects found in production). 

18. Related financial billing aspects are discussed only for enhancements and changes if required. 

19. Enhancements/ Changes/ Hot Fixes are discussed with project team. 

20. Enhancements are developed, tested and deployed with the same procedure from point no 7 to 15. 

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In case of a product based project (Software Companies develop System Software by themselves and sell them as their own products) 

1. The need for a software system is identified 

2. Potential market survey is done. 

3. Feasible sales opportunities are identified. 

4. Technologies to be used are identified and Project team is set up. 

5. Business proposals are made with the relative customers. 

6. Project Demos are provided by Pre-Sales people 

7. Sales team finalizes the sales procedure. 

8. Project manager defines the process, strategy, time lines and other parameters and finalizes them after the review is made by the client. 

9. Roles and responsibilities are defined and procedures to be followed in the project are finalized. 

10. Business Analyst is responsible for communicating with the client for any customizations. 

11. Requirement documents (High Level documents) are finalized after multiple reviews with the involvement of testing team. 

12. Use cases are written by Business Analyst.
13. Design documents are prepared by development team and finalized after multiple reviews and acceptance. 

14. Testing team designs the Test Plan and test cases with the scenarios based on the requirement documents and use cases. 

15. Once the design is completed coding is done. 

16. Once the coding is done, system is tested by QA 

17. After multiple cycles of testing and defect fixes, once the application is behaving as expected and the same is certified by QA system is pushed to production. 

18. Once the system is in production same is maintained and monitored. 

In the product based projects most of the development efforts are related to customization of the existing product to client’s requirements. 

This is a very generic procedure which would be followed in most of the companies, few aspects might change based on the companies. This section only helps the reader to obtain a fair idea of how things work in the corporate companies and it’s not a hard defined list.