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By Cameron Watson, QAIassist Context From the initial days of Information Technology (IT), practitioners have always recognized the need to establish and apply a suite of industry recognized best practices. One of these best practices is used to develop and maintain computer applications. This is the cycle of life for software. A number of lifecycles have been developed to address specific disciplines within IT – examples include Project Management Lifecycle (PMLC), Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC), and Software Testing Lifecycle (STLC). In all cases, these lifecycles are made up of a number of phases, each containing a set of deliverables. Software Testing Lifecycle (STLC) The STLC is used by application development and support teams to test and verify the functionality of an IT application or system. It is used across an organization and is applied from the inception of a project (development or maintenance) through a successful implementation of the required solution. Though a multitude of STLC’s exist, they commonly rely on a phased approach, pre-defined deliverables, and standard naming conventions. The STLC traditionally executes in parallel and concurrently with a software development lifecycle (SDLC). Here’s an overview of the most common phases in the Software Testing Lifecycle. Systems Analysis The Systems Analysis phase is the first phase to be performed within an STLC. It is initiated in conjunction with a project being authorized or approved. Its purpose is to ensure proper and effective planning is applied to the strategic and user acceptance testing effort and activity that will be performed on the application prior to it being placed in the production environment. This includes defining the user acceptance criteria and conditions the user community will apply to assess the functionality being delivered. Design The purpose of the Design phase within the STLC is to Ensure proper and effective planning is applied to define the system integration and unit testing efforts to be performed on the application Establish the pre-defined testing criteria and conditions that will be used to evaluate the system integration and unit testing results Build The Build phase is an iterative process within the STLC. Its purpose is to ensure all the technical code that has been developed reflects the pre-defined unit testing criteria established during the Design phase, It is comprised of the following steps Apply and execute the pre-defined unit testing criteria (defined in the Design phase) against the technical code that have been created by the development or maintenance teams Identify and document unit testing deviations (expected results versus actual results) Communicate unit testing deviations to development team Retest revised technical code against the unit testing criteria Confirm that all the pre-defined unit testing criteria have been satisfied Promote the authorized technical code from the unit test environment to the system integration test environment . Test Like the Build phase, the Test phase is an iterative process within the STLC. Its purpose is to ensure all the technical code that has been developed reflects the pre-defined system integration testing criteria established during the Design phase and includes Apply and execute the pre-defined system integration testing criteria against the technical code that have been created by the development or maintenance teams Identify and document system integration testing deviations Communicate system integration testing deviations to development team Retest revised technical code against system integration testing criteria Confirm that all the pre-defined system integration testing criteria have been satisfied Promote the authorized technical code from the system integration test environment to the user acceptance test environment . Release Just like the Build and Test phases, the Release phase is also an iterative process within the STLC. Its purpose is to ensure that what has been developed meets the user acceptance testing criteria established during the Systems Analysis phase and includes Apply and execute the pre-defined user acceptance testing criteria that have been created by the development or maintenance teams Identify and document user acceptance testing deviations Communicate user acceptance testing deviations to development team Retest revised technical code against the user acceptance criteria Confirm that all the pre-defined user acceptance testing criteria have been satisfied Promote the authorized technical code from the user acceptance test environment to the production environment Provide ongoing support of the application to the user community. About QAIassist QAIassist helps organizations increase and optimize their IT delivery and support efficiency. QAIassist's Integrated Methodology incorporates the disciplines and deliverables required for organizations to consistently deliver quality applications on time and within budget. Visit QAIassist's website or email Cameron for more information.

Ah, Seth Godin. If you're involved with marketing, branding, or life online, his blog is required reading. Seth has a very inspiring, no-nonsense way to think and express ideas. In an interview he gave for the Spark 97 podcast , he was talking about how to get from living life offline to getting on the bandwagon and become present online. His point of view was quite interesting: being online is now required. Period. No ifs. No buts. Then he said this: "Online project management tools force people to use the tools. Because if you don’t, then you don’t know how to do your part of the project." The challenge of moving to a collaborative project management system is also its strength If you and your team choose to use an online project management system like AceProject, be prepared for the culture switch. The team goes from depending on the project management to know what they need to do, to sharing the responsibility of communicating with the rest of the team. Project management goes from pure management to collaboration. This is a true challenge, especially for teams that are moving from spreadsheet-based project management. It changes the flow of information. Moving to online project management is also a great way to involve the team with the project. If as project managers, we hold the line and redirect people to the project management system instead of answering theirs questions about their tasks (giving a fish VS teaching to fish), the team will gradually learn and accept the tool. Because it's such a fundamental shift from the traditional ways, there can be no in-between. Connect with Karine Simard and the AceProject team via Facebook , LinkedIn and Twitter .

It was not so long ago that web-based software was not deemed trustworthy. What if the Internet service was down? What about the files, would they be safe? I remember disliking Hotmail because it was web-based only. My inbox size was limited, access was not always possible and there was so much spam! Ten years later, I'm in love with Gmail, because it's web-based: I've got more inbox space than I could ever need, it's always on and the spam filter is amazing. What changed? From web-based distrust to a growing interest and need for web-based applications, even the business world is getting onboard. There are several reasons why software as a service is becoming so popular: No need to maintain software on users' workstations. This takes a huge load off the IT team's work. Software on user workstations requires permissions to be managed and needs to be updated regularly. When the hardware is upgraded, it also takes time to reinstall all the software. With web-based software, all the IT team has to worry about is the Internet browser and the user's access to the Internet. Web-based software is maintained, upgraded and supported by the supplier. No need to manage file servers. When all one's files are in a web-based application, the organization doesn't need to maintain hard drive space on file servers, it becomes the supplier's problem. This turns into savings in hardware and time for the client. No need to manage databases. With a project management system like AceProject, the database is hosted on the supplier's servers and the client doesn't need a database administrator on staff. All database management and maintenance tasks are performed by the supplier. Backups at the client's discretion. Since the supplier takes care of backups and sometimes even provides a garanteed level of service, it's up to the client to decide if they want to make their own backups of their web-based sysem's data. Let's face it, software updates are becoming cumbersome and time-consuming. Network security is only getting tighter, making it harder to access our own data from outside the network. The planet is getting smaller everyday. Having secure access to software, regardless of where you are in the world, easily, makes more sense. It makes so much sense, in fact, that organizations prefer renting or subscribing to software rather than buying it. At AceProject, we offer both a hosted solution and an installed solution, and 90% of our customers prefer the hosted solution.