What Steps are needed to develop and Run Software tests?

The following are some of the steps to consider: 
• Obtain requirements, functional design, and internal design specifications and other necessary documents 
• Obtain budget and schedule requirements 
• Determine project-related personnel and their responsibilities, reporting requirements, required standards and processes (such as release processes, change processes, etc.) 
• Identify application's higher-risk aspects, set priorities, and determine scope and limitations of tests 
• Determine test approaches and methods - unit, integration, functional, system, load, usability tests, etc. 
• Determine test environment requirements (hardware, software, communications, etc.) 
• Determine testware requirements (record/playback tools, coverage analyzers, test tracking, problem/bug tracking, etc.) 
• Determine test input data requirements 
• Identify tasks, those responsible for tasks, and labor requirements 
• Set schedule estimates, timelines, milestones 
• Determine input equivalence classes, boundary value analyses, error classes 
• Prepare test plan document and have needed reviews/approvals 
• Write test cases 
• Have needed reviews/inspections/approvals of test cases 
• Prepare test environment and testware, obtain 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 cases, test environment, and testware through life cycle