STLC Software Testing Life Cycle

What is STLC?

STLC is simply a testing phase in the SDLC development. Validation and Authentication is tried and tested in this phase. The only limitation of this cycle is that it is limited to respective individual phase and is carried out by a group of skilled testers and technology evangelistic.


Like SDLC, STLC has fixed phases which is mentioned in hierarchy below:

1. TEST PLANNING – Preparing the test strategy & planning
2. TEST DEVELOPMENT – Creating the testing environment
3. TEST EXECUTION – Writing the test cases/Creating & Executing the Test Script
4. RESULT ANALYSIS – Analysis result and Bug report
5. BUG TRACKING – Analyse Bugs and application errors
6. REPORTING – This is a post conditional process which involves collecting data from end users

Difference Between SDLC and STLC

As we can see that SDLC and STLC have some common aspects but they differ completely from each other. SDLC vs STLC is a complex debate and hence we have provided some examples to make this point clear –
1. STLC is a part of SDLC. It is like a SET and a SUBSET. We cannot have STLC running individually on its own. It needs to wait for its roll call before implementing its phases.
2. STLC is limited to Testing software module. SDLC is rather a vast model with more inputs and executions.
3. STLC is the most important part of the SDLC life cycle. One cannot release the final product without running it through STLC process.
4. STLC team requires skilled developers and Testers. The efficiency demand is rather high here in comparison to other parts of the SDLC module.
5. STLC is also a part of the post release update cycle. The bug fixes and end user reports are logged by the application. This log is checked and fixed while building and releasing the new version of the software or Program module.