Waterfall Model is the most common method used in software testing. It is said to be a water fall method because it is like flowing downwards steadily from step to step. Here is a small introduction tutorial and PDF training materials about this.
The main phase or steps in the water fall method are
- Conception,
- Initiation,
- Analysis,
- Design,
- Construction,
- Testing,
- Production/Implementation,
- Maintenance.
This water fall method actually originated in the manufacturing and construction industries. At that time since no software methodologies existed, this was taken to the software development and testing. the main highlight of this method is one can go to the next step of the development only after completing the on going step.
Also the developers can go only to one step behind that is the immediately previous phase only. in this method, each phase of the development activity is followed by verification and validation activities. in the waterfall method, the following are the steps involved. you can move on to the next step only when you finishes the present one. the phases or steps are:
- Software requirement specification
- System and sotware design
- Implementation (coding or unit testing)
- Integration
- Testing and validation
- Operation or installation
- Maintenance
