The Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) and the Software Testing Life Cycle (STLC), are two different and distinct methods for guaranteeing project success in software development. Before seeing the difference between SDLC and STLC, first, we will understand the SDLC and STLC in brief.

SDLC is a sequence of different activities performed during the software development process. The SDLC includes various phases, and each phase has several activities, which help the development team design, create, and deliver a high-quality product. It consists of a detailed plan describing how to develop, maintain, replace and alter or enhance specific software.

SDLC life cycle is a process of developing software in a phased manner in the following order:

1. Requirements Gathering

2. Design the software

3. Build the Software

4. Test

5. Deployment

6. Maintenance

Each stage has definite entry and exit criteria along with deliverables.

STLC is a sequence of different activities performed during the software testing process to ensure software quality goals are met.

Different companies define different phases in STLC. However, the generic Software Test Life Cycle has the following stages.

1. Requirement Analysis

2. Test Planning

3. Test Development

4. Test Environment Setup

5. Test Execution & Closure

However, STLC phases only deal with testing and detecting errors but not development itself.

Let's look at how we may get both of them for the software development project.

Difference Between SDLC and STLC

Some of the key differences between SDLC and STLC

-> SDLC defines all the standard phases which are involved during the software development process, whereas the STLC process defines various activities to improve the quality of the product.

-> SDLC is a Development Life Cycle whereas STLC is a Testing Life Cycle.

-> In SDLC, the development team creates the high and low-level design plans while in STLC, the test analyst creates the System, Integration Test Plan.

-> In SDLC, real code is developed, and actual work takes place as per the design documents, whereas in STLC testing team prepares the test environment and executes test cases.

-> The SDLC life cycle helps a team to complete the successful development of the software while STLC phases only cover software testing.

SDLC and STLC are merely two of the considerable tools that organizations should maintain in their toolkit. SDLC delivers a structured and phased strategy to software development. The STLC can be used to validate such software development projects for performance, reliability, and functionality. STLC and SDLC both act as a framework for software development and testing.

Jointly, SDLC and STLC can help all stakeholders, including clients, in comprehending the whole development and testing cycle.

In this blog, we have been concerned with express SDLCs and STLCs and how they vary separately. Hopefully, this blog intention provides you with a finer insight into SDLC vs STLC.

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