The main difference between SDLC and STLC is that the SDLC is a process followed by software organizations to deliver functional software to end users that involves planning, requirements gathering and analysis, design, implementation, testing, and maintenance. Whereas, STLC is a process followed by the testing team to ensure software quality, which only involves software testing.
Software development is a complicated process. Although it is simple and easier to develop a small program, it is quite difficult to develop enterprise-grade software. Therefore, it is necessary to use an adequate methodology to develop the product. SDLC is the process used by software organizations to deliver quality software to end users. It covers the entire software life cycle. On the other hand, STLC is the process of following activities to ensure software quality. In short, STLC is a subset of SDLC.
Key Areas Covered
1. What is SDLC?
– Definition, Phases, Functionality
2. What is STLC
– Definition, Phases, Functionality
3. What is the relationship between SDLC and STLC?
– Association scheme
4. What is the difference between SDLC and STLC?
– Comparison of key difference
What is SDLC?
SDLC stands for Program Development Life Cycle . It is a process followed from the beginning to the delivery of the software to the production environment. There are several phases in SDLC.
SDLC Phases
Planning – A basic understanding of the project is identified. This also includes recognition of risks, technical difficulties, resources…
Requirement Gathering and Analysis – Requirements gathering is done using various methods. Meeting with the client, meeting with senior managers, looking at the details of sales and marketing are some of them. The information collected is then analyzed and documented. This document is known as the Software Requirements Specification (SRS). It contains the requirements that must be designed and developed during the life cycle of the project.
Design – This phase involves the design of all architectural modules, data flow representations with other modules. It also involves database design, class diagrams, and object diagram design.
Development – The project is implemented using appropriate programming languages. It involves selecting programming languages, integrated development environments (IDEs), and tools like code editors, debuggers, etc.
Testing – This is the process of verifying and validating that the software has reached the expected level. There are two types of tests called functional tests and non-functional tests. Functional tests check the functionalities of the software while non-functional tests check the non-functional aspects such as performance, loading, usability, etc.
Deployment and Maintenance – Finally, the product is launched on the market. Based on customer feedback, etc., new features are added to the product. Technical support teams provide the services necessary to maintain the software. This phase is also called evolution.
What is STLC?
STLC stands for Software Testing Life Cycle . It is the process followed by the test team to produce quality software in the end. STLC is an integral part of SDLC but STLC focuses only on testing. It starts after preparing the SRS document in SDLC. The test team prepares the test cases and starts executing them to find software defects.
STLC involves following different phases. It is not mandatory to follow all of them. STLC phases may depend on the type of software, available resources and testing time, organization requirements, etc.
STLC Phases
Requirements analysis – After preparing the SRS document, the test team initiates a high-level requirements analysis.
Test Planning – This phase involves planning the strategies and approaches for the test.
Test Case Design – This is about developing test cases. A test case is a set of actions performed to verify a particular feature or functionality of the software.
Test environment setup – It is the phase where the integrated environment is ready to validate the product.
Test execution – This phase performs real-time validation of the software. It actually finds the flaws..
Test Closure – After the test is complete, the test results are documented.
Relationship between SDLC and STLC
- STLC is a subset of SDLC.
Difference Between SDLC and STLC
Definition
SDLC is the process followed by the development team within the software organization to develop a software product. STLC is the process of carrying out various activities to ensure software quality. This is the basic difference between SDLC and STLC.
Long way
The software development life cycle is the long form of SDLC, while the software testing life cycle is the long form of STLC.
Tangle
Another difference between SDLC and STLC is that while SDLC covers the entire software lifecycle, STLC is limited to the testing phase only.
Requirements Gathering
Also, in SDLC, the business analyst gathers the requirements and the development team analyzes them. They consider architecture and design. In STLC, the test team analyzes the SRS document to identify the test requirements.
Design
We can find another difference between SDLC and STLC in their respective designs. In SDLC, design involves developing a high-level and low-level design of the software based on the requirements. In STLC, the design is done by the test architect or a test driver. Plan test strategies to identify test points.
Developing
In SDLC, the development team starts developing the software in the development phase. In STLC, the test team writes test scenarios to validate the quality of the software. They write test cases for all modules with expected results. This is also an important difference between SDLC and STLC.
Evidence
In the SDLC, the tests, such as unit tests, integrated tests, system tests, etc., are performed by the testers in the testing phase. The test report is sent to the developers. They fix the defects and send it back to the testing team for retesting. Therefore, STLC is a part of SDLC. Therefore, the same tasks mentioned in SDLC are performed in STLC.
Deploying the software to production
Also, in SDLC, after the testing phase, the software is released to real end users. In STLC, smoke and sanity tests are performed after the software is deployed. Also, test reports, matrices and other documents are prepared by the testing team. We can say this as the main difference between SDLC and STLC.
Maintenance
At SDLC, the technical team provides support to update and maintain the software. In STLC, test cases and automation scripts are kept for updates.
conclusion
SDLC is the process followed by the software organization to deliver functional software to end users that involves planning, requirements gathering and analysis, design, implementation, testing, and maintenance. STLC is the process followed by the testing team to ensure software quality, which only involves software testing. That is the difference between SDLC and STLC.