QA Glossary
Strategy & Process glossary.
46 strategy & process terms every QA engineer and SDET should know, each defined with a real-world example and an interview tip.
Browse the full QA glossaryShift-Left TestingShift-left testing is the practice of moving testing activities earlier in the software development lifecycle, catching defects during requirements, design, and development rather than after deployment.
Shift-Right TestingShift-right testing is the practice of extending testing activities into production and post-deployment phases, using monitoring, observability, and controlled rollouts to detect issues that pre-production testing cannot catch.
Test StrategyA test strategy is a high-level document that defines the testing approach, objectives, scope, types of testing, environments, tools, and risk mitigation for a project or organization.
Test PlanA test plan is a detailed document that describes the scope, approach, resources, schedule, and deliverables for testing a specific feature, release, or project.
Risk-Based TestingRisk-based testing is an approach that prioritizes testing efforts based on the probability of failure and the business impact of that failure, focusing resources on the highest-risk areas first.
Acceptance CriteriaAcceptance criteria are specific, testable conditions that a user story or feature must satisfy to be considered complete and accepted by the product owner.
Definition of DoneThe Definition of Done (DoD) is a shared checklist of quality conditions that every user story, feature, or increment must meet before it can be considered complete, covering aspects like testing, documentation, code review, and deployment readiness.
Quality GatesQuality gates are checkpoints in the software delivery process where predefined quality criteria must be met before work can proceed to the next stage, enforcing minimum standards at each phase.
Test Environment ManagementTest environment management is the practice of provisioning, configuring, maintaining, and monitoring the infrastructure where automated and manual tests execute, ensuring environments are consistent, available, and representative of production.
Mobile TestingMobile testing is the process of testing applications on mobile devices (smartphones and tablets) for functionality, usability, performance, security, and compatibility across different operating systems, screen sizes, and network conditions.
Security TestingSecurity testing is the process of identifying vulnerabilities, threats, and risks in a software application to ensure that data and resources are protected from potential attacks and unauthorized access.
Agile TestingAgile testing is a software testing approach that follows agile development principles, continuous testing throughout the sprint, collaboration between testers and developers, and fast feedback loops rather than a separate testing phase at the end.
Behavior-Driven Development (BDD)Behavior-Driven Development (BDD) is a collaborative practice where teams describe software behavior in plain-language Given-When-Then scenarios that double as living documentation and automated acceptance tests.
Severity vs PrioritySeverity measures the technical impact of a defect on the system, while priority measures how urgently it should be fixed relative to other work.
Defect TriageDefect triage is the process of reviewing reported bugs and deciding, for each, whether it is valid, how severe and urgent it is, who owns it, and when it should be fixed.
Root Cause Analysis (RCA)Root cause analysis (RCA) is a structured process for finding the underlying cause of a defect or incident, the thing that, if fixed, prevents the whole class of problem from recurring, rather than just patching the visible symptom.
Defect DensityDefect density is a quality metric that measures the number of confirmed defects divided by the size of the component, commonly per thousand lines of code (KLOC) or per function point or module.
Requirements Traceability Matrix (RTM)A requirements traceability matrix (RTM) is a document that maps each requirement to the test cases that verify it, proving every requirement is covered and showing the impact of any change.
Entry and Exit CriteriaEntry criteria are the conditions that must be met before a testing phase can begin; exit criteria are the conditions that must be met before it can be considered complete and the team can move on.
Test ClosureTest closure is the final phase of the testing process, where the team confirms testing is complete against its exit criteria, archives artifacts, captures metrics and lessons learned, and produces a test closure (or test summary) report.
Defect LeakageDefect leakage (also called defect escape) measures the share of defects that were missed in testing and found later, in a higher test phase or in production, indicating how effective the earlier testing was.
QA vs QC (Quality Assurance vs Quality Control)Quality Assurance (QA) is a process-oriented, preventive activity focused on improving how software is built so defects are less likely, while Quality Control (QC) is a product-oriented, detective activity focused on finding defects in the built software.
STLC (Software Testing Life Cycle)The Software Testing Life Cycle (STLC) is the sequence of phases that structure a testing effort: requirement analysis, test planning, test case design, test environment setup, test execution, and test closure, each with defined entry and exit criteria.
SDLC (Software Development Life Cycle)The Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is the end-to-end process for building software, from requirements through design, development, testing, deployment, and maintenance, structured into phases so teams can plan, build, and ship in a repeatable way.
V-ModelThe V-model is a software development and testing model that pairs each development phase with a corresponding testing phase, drawn as a V with development descending one side and testing ascending the other, emphasizing that test planning happens alongside each development stage.
Bug BashA bug bash is a time-boxed event where many people, often the whole team including developers, designers, and product, test a product together to find as many defects as possible in a short, focused window before a release.
DogfoodingDogfooding (eating your own dog food) is the practice of a company using its own product internally, in real daily work, before or alongside releasing it to customers, so the team experiences the bugs and rough edges firsthand.
Acceptance Test-Driven Development (ATDD)Acceptance Test-Driven Development (ATDD) is a collaborative practice where the team defines acceptance tests for a feature, agreed on by business, development, and testing, before development starts, so everyone shares a concrete understanding of "done" and builds to those tests.
Agile Testing QuadrantsThe agile testing quadrants are a model (popularized by Brian Marick and Lisa Crispin and Janet Gregory) that organizes testing activities along two axes, business-facing vs technology-facing, and supporting the team vs critiquing the product, producing four quadrants that together ensure balanced test coverage.
Session-Based Test ManagementSession-based test management (SBTM) is a structured approach to exploratory testing in which testing is organized into time-boxed, chartered sessions with defined goals, recorded notes, and a debrief, making otherwise unstructured exploration measurable, accountable, and reportable.
Three AmigosThe three amigos is an agile practice in which three perspectives, business (what problem to solve), development (how to build it), and testing (what could go wrong), meet to discuss a user story before development begins, building shared understanding and surfacing ambiguities early.
Specification by ExampleSpecification by example (SBE) is a collaborative approach to defining requirements using concrete, realistic examples of system behavior, which are refined into executable acceptance tests that double as always-current, living documentation.
Ice Cream Cone Anti-PatternThe ice cream cone anti-pattern is an inverted test pyramid: a test suite weighted toward slow, brittle end-to-end and manual tests at the top, with few fast unit tests at the bottom, producing slow, flaky, expensive-to-maintain testing.
Maintainability TestingMaintainability testing evaluates how easily software can be modified, corrected, improved, or adapted, assessing qualities like code clarity, modularity, test coverage, and documentation that determine the effort required to change the system over its life.
A/B TestingA/B testing is an experimentation method that compares two (or more) variants of a feature by showing each to a randomly assigned segment of real users and measuring which performs better on a chosen metric, used to make data-driven product decisions.
Defect Removal Efficiency (DRE)Defect removal efficiency (DRE) is a quality metric that measures the percentage of defects a team finds and removes before release, calculated as defects found before release divided by total defects (those found before release plus those found by users afterward), times 100.
Technical DebtTechnical debt is the implied future cost of choosing an easier or quicker solution now instead of a better one that would take longer, accumulating as code, design, or test shortcuts that make the system progressively harder and riskier to change.
Pair TestingPair testing is a collaborative technique where two people work together at one workstation to test the same feature at the same time, combining their perspectives to find more and deeper issues than either would alone.
CrowdtestingCrowdtesting (crowdsourced testing) is an approach that uses a large, geographically distributed group of external testers, often on their own real devices, networks, and locales, to test software under diverse real-world conditions that are hard to replicate in-house.
Data MaskingData masking is the practice of replacing sensitive information (such as names, emails, payment details, and health records) with realistic but fictitious values, so that test environments can use production-like data without exposing real, private information.
Cyclomatic ComplexityCyclomatic complexity is a software metric that measures the number of linearly independent paths through a piece of code, derived from its control-flow graph, giving a quantitative indicator of how complex the code is and roughly how many test cases are needed to cover its branches.
Mob TestingMob testing is a collaborative practice where a whole group, often the entire team, tests the same feature together at one shared screen at the same time, combining many perspectives to explore deeply, share knowledge, and align quickly.
Defect AgeDefect age is a measure of how long a defect has existed, either as elapsed time (from when it was introduced or detected to when it was fixed or closed) or as the number of phases between where it was introduced and where it was found.
Risk MatrixA risk matrix is a grid that plots risks by their likelihood (probability of occurring) against their impact (severity of consequences), producing a prioritized view that helps teams focus testing effort on the highest-risk areas.
Test Effort EstimationTest effort estimation is the process of predicting how much time, people, and resources will be needed to test a feature or release, so testing can be planned, scheduled, and resourced realistically rather than squeezed into whatever time remains.
Definition of ReadyThe Definition of Ready (DoR) is a shared checklist of criteria a user story or work item must meet before the team commits to working on it, ensuring the item is clear, feasible, and testable enough to start without immediate blockers.
Other glossary categories
FREE TOOLS / no signup
Free QA career tools, no account needed
Instant and private, everything runs in your browser. Try them before you sign up.
QA Resume Checker
Instant 0-100 score on automation keywords, impact, and ATS formatting.
QA Cover Letter Generator
A tailored 3-paragraph QA cover letter from your resume and a job post.
QA Application Tracker
Drag-and-drop kanban to track every QA application from Applied to Offer.
QA Take-Home Test Generator
A realistic take-home assignment with a scenario, tasks, and a rubric.
QA LinkedIn Headline Generator
A recruiter-searchable headline, About section, and skills list.
QA STAR Story Builder
Structure a QA behavioral answer with the STAR method and instant checks.
QA Bug Report Generator
Build a clean, reproducible bug report for Markdown, Jira, or plain text.
Boundary Value Analysis Generator
Generate boundary value and equivalence partitioning test cases from a range.
QA Metrics Calculator
Calculate DRE, defect leakage, defect density, and pass rate with interpretation.
QA Test Plan Generator
Build a structured test plan (scope, approach, criteria, risks) in Markdown.
EXEC.NOW
Ready to Ace Your QA Interview?
Practice with AI that asks real questions about the concepts that matter.
Join 1,200+ QA engineers already practicing with AssertHired.
Start your free QA interviewFREE.TO.START · 7.DAY.TRIAL ON PAID PLANS
Written by Aston Cook, Senior QA EngineerStart a free mock interview