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测试知识问答，今天推出第一期

Q: What is a bug life cycle?

A: Bug life cycles are similar to software development life cycles. At any time during the software development life cycle errors can be made during the gathering of requirements, requirements analysis, functional design, internal design, documentation planning, document preparation, coding, unit testing, test planning, integration, testing, maintenance, updates, re-testing and phase-out.

Bug life cycle begins when a programmer, software developer, or architect makes a mistake, creates an unintentional software defect, i.e. bug, and ends when the bug is fixed, and the bug is no longer in existence.

What should be done after a bug is found? When a bug is found, it needs to be communicated and assigned to developers that can fix it. After the problem is resolved, fixes should be re-tested.

Additionally, determinations should be made regarding requirements, software, hardware, safety impact, etc., for regression testing to check the fixes didn’t create other problems elsewhere.

If a problem-tracking system is in place, it should encapsulate these determinations. A variety of commercial, problem-tracking, management software tools are available. These tools, with the detailed input of software test engineers, will give the team complete information so developers can understand the bug, get an idea of its severity, reproduce it and fix it.

Q: What is software configuration management?

A: Software Configuration Management (SCM) is the control and the recording of changes that are made to the software and documentation throughout the software development life cycle (SDLC).

SCM covers the tools and processes used to control, coordinate and track code, requirements, documentation, problems, change requests, designs, tools, compilers, libraries, patches, and changes made to them, and to keep track of who makes the changes.

Q: What is integration testing?

A: Integration testing is black box testing. The purpose of integration testing is to ensure distinct components of the application still work in accordance to customer requirements. Test cases are developed with the express purpose of exercising the interfaces between the components. This activity is carried out by the test team. Integration testing is considered complete, when actual results and expected results are either in line or differences are explainable/acceptable based on client input.