What steps are needed to develop and run software tests?

The following are some of the steps to consider:
- Obtain requirements, functional design, annd internal design specifications and other necessary documents
- Obtain budget and schedule requirements - Determine project-related personnel and thheir responsibilities, reporting requirements, required standards and processes (such as release processes, change processes, etc.)
- Identify application's higher-risk aspectss, set priorities, and determine scope and limitations of tests
- Determine test approaches and methods - unnit, integration, functional, system, load, usability tests, etc.
- Determine test environment requirements (hhardware, software, communications, etc.)
-Determine testware requirements (record/plaayback tools, coverage analyzers, test tracking, problem/bug tracking, etc.)
- Determine test input data requirements - Identify tasks, those responsible for taskks, and labor requirements
- Set schedule estimates, timelines, milestoones
- Determine input equivalence classes, bounddary value analyses, error classes
- Prepare test plan document and have neededd reviews/approvals
- Write test cases
- Have needed reviews/inspections/approvals of test cases
- Prepare test environment and testware, obttain needed user manuals/reference documents/configuration guides/installation guides, set up test tracking processes, set up logging and archiving processes, set up or obtain test input data 

- Obtain and install software releases
- Perform tests
- Evaluate and report results
- Track problems/bugs and fixes
- Retest as needed
- Maintain and update test plans, test casess, test environment, and testware through life cycle