Phase 5 โ Testing
Overview
The Testing phase verifies that the software meets all functional and non-functional requirements before it is deployed to production. Testing is a quality gate โ not a final hurdle.
Modern engineering teams treat testing as a continuous activity throughout the SDLC, not a phase that happens only after development is complete.
Testing Pyramid
Tests should be abundant at the bottom and sparse at the top. Each layer complements, not replaces, the others.
Testing Types Overview
| Type | What It Validates | When It Runs |
|---|---|---|
| Unit Testing | Individual methods and classes in isolation | Every commit, in CI |
| Integration Testing | Component interactions (DB, queues, APIs) | Every commit, in CI |
| Regression Testing | Existing functionality still works | Before every release |
| End-to-End Testing | Full user workflows through the whole stack | Pre-deployment |
| Inflight Testing | System behaviour under real production traffic | During / after deployment |
| Component Performance Testing | Individual service performance under load | Before major releases |
Quality Gates
Every release must pass these gates before promotion to the next environment:
DEV โ SIT (System Integration Testing)
- Unit test suite green (โฅ 80% coverage)
- Sonar quality gate green
- Integration tests green
SIT โ UAT (User Acceptance Testing)
- All integration tests passing
- No open Critical or Blocker defects
- Regression suite completed on SIT
UAT โ Production
- UAT signed off by Product Manager
- E2E tests green on UAT
- Performance benchmarks met
- Security scan completed
- Test Summary Report approved
Defect Management
Defect Severity Levels
| Severity | Definition | Resolution SLA |
|---|---|---|
| P1 โ Critical | System crash, data loss, security breach | Block release โ fix immediately |
| P2 โ High | Major feature broken, no workaround | Must fix before release |
| P3 โ Medium | Feature partially broken, workaround exists | Fix in current or next sprint |
| P4 โ Low | Minor UI/UX issue, cosmetic | Backlog |
Defect Lifecycle
New โ Assigned โ In Progress โ Fixed โ Verification โ Closed
โ
Rejected โ Reopened
Entry Criteria
- Development phase complete (stories merged to develop)
- Test environment is configured and seeded with test data
- Test cases are written and reviewed
- Test environment matches production configuration as closely as possible
Exit Criteria
- All planned test cases executed
- No open P1 or P2 defects
- P3 defects reviewed and accepted or deferred
- Regression suite passed
- E2E suite passed
- Test Summary Report produced and approved
- Performance benchmarks met
- Product Manager sign-off obtained
Testing Tools in the Java/Spring Ecosystem
- Unit testing: JUnit 5, Mockito, AssertJ
- Integration testing: Spring Boot Test, Testcontainers, MockMvc
- Contract testing: Spring Cloud Contract, Pact
- E2E testing: Selenium, Playwright, Cypress
- Performance testing: Gatling, k6, Apache JMeter
- Security testing: OWASP ZAP, Snyk