The testers need not only to be well acquainted with various principles, methodologies, and test techniques but also have at least a common idea of the main development process models.
The knowledge of the main development concepts and principles promotes more qualitative and effective checking (whether it is mobile testing, web products checking, or desktop testing).
Software testing and development are interlinked processes that affect each other. Performing load testing or functional testing, a specialist applies certain approaches to the test procedure according to the development model which is used.
The waterfall model is one of the most widespread development methodologies. This model firstly was described in 1970 by Winston W. Royce. The waterfall model is a bright example of the “plan the work and works the plan” philosophy. This model contains several phases.
What Are the Phases of the Waterfall Development Process?
- Definition and analysis of the requirements for the system.
- Analysis and classification of the system requirements.
- System designing (selection of the architecture, interface, and so on).
- Coding (system design execution with the help of code).
- Testing (independent validation and verification). The system should refer to all available requirements. This relates not only to the product's function but to its design too. After fixing the detected bugs the product is tested again. But this time, the specialists conduct regression testing.
- The product release.
The strict order of the steps fulfillment is peculiar for the waterfall development model, thus each phase is easy to be controlled over. The main disadvantage of this model is a lack of the opportunity to make some changes of the previous step.