Category: Testing Throughout The Software Development Lifecycle

Terminology Component testing involves systematically checking the lowest-level components in a system’s architecture. Depending on the programming language used to create them, these components have various names, such as “units”, “modules” or (in the case of object-oriented programming) “classes”. The corresponding tests are therefore called “module tests”, “unit tests”, or “class tests”. Components and component…

A software system is usually composed of a number of subsystems, which in turn are made up of multiple components often referred to as units or modules. The resulting system structure is also called the systems “software architecture” or “architecture”. Designing an architecture that perfectly supports the system’s requirements is a critical part of the…

The requirements for planning and traceability of development and testing vary according to the context. Likewise, the appropriateness of a particular lifecycle model for the development of a specific product also depends on the contexts within which it is developed and used. The following project-and product-based factors play a role in deciding which model to…

Iterative development The basic idea behind iterative development is that the development team can use the experience they gain from previous development stages along with real-world and customer feedback from earlier system versions to improve the product in future iterations. Such improvements can take the form of fault corrections or the alteration, extension or addition…

The V-model is an extension of the waterfall model (see [Boehm 79], [ISO/IEC 12207]). The advent of this model made a huge and lasting difference to the way testing is viewed within the development process. Every tester and every developer should learn the V-model and learn about how it integrates the testing process. Even if…

An early model was the so-called “waterfall model” [Royce 70]. It is impressively simple and, in the past, enjoyed a high degree of popularity. Each development phase can only begin once the previous phase has been completed, hence the model’s name1. However, the model can produce feedback loops between neighboring phases that require changes to…

As the name suggests, a sequential development model arranges the activities involved in the development process in a linear fashion. The assumption here is that development of the product and its feature set is finished when all the phases of the development model have been completed. This model does not envisage overlaps between phases or…

Most software development projects are planned and executed along the lines of a software development lifecycle model that is chosen in advance. Such models are also referred to as software development process models or, more concisely, development models. Such a model divides a project into separate sections, phases, or iterations and arranges the resulting tasks…