Testing in Development Life Cycle Levels

Software Testing Life Cycle refers to a testing process which has specific steps to be executed in a definite sequence to ensure that the quality goals have been met. In Testing development life cycle levels each activity is carried out in a planned and systematic way. Each phase has different goals and deliverables. 

Unit Testing – is done from our developers to test the smallest testable part of an application like classes, procedures and interfaces to ensure that the set of inputs given will return the proper value required. Unit testing is done before any other testing type and basically before integration testing phase.

Component Testing - is a method where testing of each component in an application is done separately.  The Component testing is also known as module and program testing. It finds the defects in each module separate of the system and verifies the process of functioning of developed software. 

Integration Testing – is done to test the process of communication between each developed component together and to verify the interaction executed in different parts of the system. Integration testing is done by our specific integration tester or completed by our test team.

System Testing – is executed to test the behavior of the whole system/product as defined by the scope of the development project or product. The current tests generated are made based on risks and/or requirement specifications, business process, use cases, or other high level descriptions of system behavior, interactions with the operating systems, and system resources. System testing is most often the final test to verify that the system to be delivered meets the specification and its purpose.

Acceptance Testing - the main goal of acceptance testing is to establish confidence in the developed system and is most often focused on a validation type testing. The acceptance testing also consists of operational acceptance test, contract acceptance test and compliance acceptance testing.

Alpha Testing - is one of the most common software testing strategy used in software development process. Alpha testing is testing of an application when development is about to complete. Alpha testing is typically performed from our software test engineers, or software QA engineers.

It is final testing before the software is released to the public. It has two phases:

• In the first phase of alpha testing, the software is tested by in-house developers. They use either debugger software, or hardware-assisted debuggers. The goal is to catch bugs quickly.
• In the second phase of alpha testing, the software is handed over to the software QA staff, for additional testing in an environment that is similar to the intended use. 

Beta Testing - is also known as field testing. It takes place at customer’s site. It sends the system/software to users who install it and use it under real-world working conditions. A beta test is the second phase of software testing in which a sample of the intended audience tries the product out.