Goal
Find defects before the client does — at every level, automating what repeats, with measurable coverage.
Inputs → outputs
Inputs
- SRS, acceptance criteria, RTM
- Stable build on staging
Deliverables
- Test plan + test cases (traced to requirements)
- Test report: pass/fail, open defects by severity
- Load test report: throughput, p95 latency
Teams & roles
- Quality Assurance (QA/QC)test plan, test cases, reporting
- Engineering (FE · BE · Mobile)unit / integration tests, fixes
- DevOps / SREload-test environment and tooling
- Business Analysis (BA)consulted on business scenarios
- Client (Product Owner / sponsor)realistic data, release-blocking severity
RACI matrix
R — does the work · A — accountable, final sign-off (exactly one A per activity) · C — consulted before · I — informed after.
| Activity | BA | Arch | PM | Dev | QA | Ops | Client |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Test plan | C | · | C | · | A | · | · |
| Test case design traced to requirements | C | · | · | · | A | · | · |
| Unit & integration tests | · | · | · | A | C | · | · |
| System / E2E, regression, accessibility | · | · | · | C | A | · | · |
| Performance & load testing | · | C | · | · | A | R | · |
| Defect reporting & triage | · | · | I | R | A | · | I |
BA = Business Analysis (BA); Arch = Solution Architecture; PM = Project Management / Scrum Master; Dev = Engineering (FE · BE · Mobile); QA = Quality Assurance (QA/QC); Ops = DevOps / SRE; Client = Client (Product Owner / sponsor)
Quality gate
No open critical/high defects; performance NFRs met.
Entry criteria
- Stable staging build with green smoke tests
- Test plan approved
- Test data ready
Exit criteria
- 100% of high-priority test cases executed
- No open Critical/High defects
- Performance NFRs met (e.g. committed p95 latency)
- Test report issued; RTM updated with results
- AI-assisted changes (tests, test data, fixes) reviewed by someone else + labelled
Activities
- 1.Unit tests for logic; integration tests for API + database
- 2.System / end-to-end tests of key flows in a real browser
- 3.Performance & load tests against the agreed NFRs
- 4.Automated regression in CI
- 5.Accessibility and cross-device checks
Checklist
Tick to self-review — 0/7. Ticks stay in this browser only and are not sent anywhere.
Document templates
Markdown (.md) files: open in any editor, or paste into Word / Google Docs. Each states its purpose, who fills it in and when.
Client involvement
- Provide realistic data and scenarios
- Agree which severity blocks a release
Tools
- Vitest / Jest
- JUnit 5
- Playwright
- Postman / Newman
- k6
Reference standards
- ISTQB® CTFL v4.0
- Test levels, types and design techniques
- ISO/IEC/IEEE 29119
- Software testing processes and documentation
Common pitfalls
- Testing only the happy path
- Leaving testing to the end
- Measuring line coverage but not requirement coverage
- A "green" suite that checks the wrong thing
Real example
cuongthai.com, 30 Jul 2026: an HTTP check in the deploy script calledwgetinside the frontend container, which has nowget. It always failed, looped through every retry, cost about 25 seconds per deploy and verified nothing. The testing lesson: test the checker before trusting its verdict.
Where to learn
Subjects and courses on cuongthai.com that teach this stage’s work.