A sample testing cycle

Although testing varies between organizations, there is a cycle to testing:

1. Requirements Analysis: Testing should begin in the requirements phase of the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_development_life_cycle - software development life cycle .

   During the design phase, testers work with developers in determining what aspects of a design are testable and under what parameter those tests work.

2. Test Planning: Test Strategy, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Test_Plan - Test Plan (s), Test Bed creation.
3. Test Development: Test Procedures, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scenario_test - Test Scenarios , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Test_Case - Test Cases , Test Scripts to use in testing software.
4. Test Execution: Testers execute the software based on the plans and tests and report any errors found to the development team.
5. Test Reporting: Once testing is completed, testers generate metrics and make final reports on their http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Test_effort - test effort and whether or not the software tested is ready for release.
6. Retesting the Defects

Not all errors or defects reported must be fixed by a software development team. Some may be caused by errors in configuring the test software to match the development or production environment. Some defects can be handled by a workaround in the production environment. Others might be deferred to future releases of the software, or the deficiency might be accepted by the business user. There are yet other defects that may be rejected by the development team (of course, with due reason) if they deem it inappropriate to be called a defect.