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Free Resource · 2026

Your QA Process,
Step by Step.

85+ checklist items across 5 phases of software quality assurance. The framework your team needs to ship with confidence, from planning to production.

What's inside
01
Planning & Strategy
Scope, risk, resources, acceptance criteria
02
Test Design & Development
Scripts, automation, unit, regression
03
Test Execution
Smoke testing, UAT, exploratory, defect lifecycle
04
Evaluation & Reporting
KPIs, stakeholder reports, lessons learned
05
Test Closure & Maintenance
Sign-off, production monitoring, CI/CD
85+
Checklist items
5
QA phases covered
8
Pages, print-ready
STS Free · 2026
The Essential
Software QA
Checklist

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Used by QA teams across Canada

"Their proactive approach helped us identify and address potential issues early on, saving us a great deal of time and resources."

A
Arjuna Shankar
Partner, Dot Fusion Digital
Inside the checklist

85+ items. Nothing left out.

Here's a sample of what you'll be working through across the five phases.

01
Planning & Strategy
Testing scope is defined (what's in, what's out)
Mitigation strategies defined and assigned
Edge cases and negative scenarios covered
+ 11 more items in this phase
02
Test Design & Development
Test scripts peer-reviewed and version controlled
API contracts tested against expected inputs and outputs
Regression suite maintained and updated each release
+ 11 more items in this phase
03
Test Execution
Smoke tests run on every new build before full execution
Defect lifecycle tracked: Open, In Progress, Fixed, Closed
Formal UAT sign-off obtained before release is approved
+ 13 more items in this phase
04
Evaluation & Reporting
Defect escape rate tracked to measure test effectiveness
Mean time to detect (MTTD) tracked for critical defects
Retrospective held, lessons actioned not just noted
+ 9 more items in this phase
05
Test Closure & Maintenance
CI/CD pipeline includes automated regression on every build
Flaky tests identified, investigated, fixed or removed
QA practices benchmarked against industry standards annually
+ 9 more items in this phase
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85+ items, all five phases, free PDF.
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