Testing and BA

Start with SDLC

1. Initiation and Planning2. Requirements Gathering3. Development and design4. Testing5. Implementation6. Maintenance

There are Several Teams in a Software company:

1. Business Development BD (Marketing & Sales)2. Business Analyst Team3. Development Team4. Testing Team5. Deployment or Implementation Team6. Support Team

PROJECT INITIATION AND PLANNING

BD Team: Backbone of the company. BD people will get projects from customers with their marketing skills. Once they get a customer, they will have an high-level requirements of software which is supposed to be built.

Project manager, business analyst and technical architect sit with the sales team to analyse if the project is feasible based on cost, profit, risks, high level delivery schedule, etc. Based on this discussion they come to a conclusion and submit proposal to the client called RFP Request For Proposal.

BD Team will get back to the client with cost and delivery schedule. If client agrees, sales team will prepare a document called SOW Statement of Work which will be signed off by the client as well.

Once SOW is there, Project manager will prepare a delivery plan called Project Plan, which includes milestones of the project, iterations, end dates, etc. Also, requirement gathering schedule, development schedule, design, testing, and implementation schedule will be mentioned in detail.

REQUIREMENT GATHERING

After project is initiated and planning is done by project manager, Business Analyst starts his work. Business analyst will have a high level requirement from BD team. BA will establish connection with client and starts requirement gathering. Requirements can be collected via phone, email, face to face discussion, etc.

Then starts DOCUMENTATION.

BA captures the requirements and translates the issues in the language of developers who have knowledge of the software they are dealing with. In simple terms BA acts like a translator and conveys clearly the client requirements to the development team.

The document SRS or BRD Business requirement document is prepared by BA. After the document is completed the BA and the client meet for a formal review for the approval of the BRD.

BA also prepares Traceability Matrix.

Later on FRD Functional Requirement Document or FSD Functional Specification Document is prepared by him. This document also requires formal approval of the client.

Once FRD is signed off, BA provides FRD walkthrough to the development/testing teams. For any queries/clarification on the requirement, development/testing teams can approach BA. Based on this FRD, testers create test scenarios/ test cases.

The role of BA is very critical because the earlier the errors are introduced in the project, the more expensive it is to detect and resolve.

DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT

Technical architect would do the designing. How application should interact with Database (front end, back end), and other technical specifications will be designed at this phase. Two types of design: High level Design, Low level Design.

DEVELOPMENT

Developers will code the functionality provided by the BA. Once development is over, they do one round of testing called Unit testing.

TESTING

After coding, it will be passed to testers. Testers will have test cases written vis-a-vis FRD document. They will validate whether the code developed is in accordance with the FRD document or not. If any bugs or defects are found, it is passed back to the developers to fix those bugs. The cycle goes on until all bugs are fixed.

Once application is made bug free, application will be dispatched to User Acceptance Testing, which is done at client side.

Here again, BA will come into picture. Usually client takes their own time in doing UAT, BA will co-ordinate with the client. If any bugs found in UAT it will again be moved back to the developers and testing team. (If any bugs found in UAT by client, it is very bad on testers)

After UAT is successful, application will be in Beta (Beta testing)period for some time, depending on the deal happened with the marketing team. During Beta period free support will be given to client. Beta period will be live. After Beta period, Project manager will get sign off form the client. He provides all the documentation to use software like user guide, installation manual etc.

Later if anything related to software, it will be considered as MAINTENANCE.

Requirement Traceability Matrix (RTM):

The matrix is created at the very beginning of the project as it forms the basis of the projects scope and deliverables that will be produced.

The purpose of RTM is to ensure that all requirements defined for a system are covered and are tested in the test protocol.

RTM parameters:

Requirement ID Risks Requirement Description Functional Requirement Document created/updated Unit Test Cases Integration Test Cases System Test Cases User Acceptance Test Cases

The RTM template shows the mapping between the actual requirement and user requirement/system requirement. This is the mapping between actual requirement and design specification.

In any case, if you want to change the requirement in future then you can see the RTM to make the respective changes and you can easily judge how many associated test cases will be changing.

Requirement ID

Risks Requirement Description

Functional Requirement Document created/updated

Unit Test Cases

Integration Test Cases

System Test Cases

User Acceptance Test Cases

Difference between BRD and FRD:

The requirements given by the user/customer/client collected in a single document called BRD. It is a high level document which contains what all the application has to perform to satisfy user needs.

In FRD the requirements are explained in an elaborated manner using use cases, mock ups, etc. It provides a user clear understanding in pictorial manner using flow diagrams.

Use Case:

A use case is a written description of how users will perform tasks on your application/website. It outlines, from a user’s point of view, system behaviour as it responds to a request.

Each use case is represented as a sequence of simple steps, beginning with a user’s goal and ending when that goal is fulfilled.