Software Testing Process Models Benefits&Drawbacks: a Systematic Literature Review <s> Discussion <s> As one of the most challenging and costly processes, the software testing provides strong support for the high quality software. The popular process improvement models do not adequately address testing application issues, nor has the knowledge management (KM) implementation in testing been well defined. The plan-do-check-action (PDCA)-based testing improvement framework is proposed to address these issues. The framework contains the adaptive processes definition, the processes implementation and measurement analysis, and benchmarking-based assessment approach. Experiments show that: the framework can stimulate team member's subjective initiative, promote the software testing process and improve the testing service quality. <s> BIB001 </s> Software Testing Process Models Benefits&Drawbacks: a Systematic Literature Review <s> Discussion <s> The discipline of software testing is increasingly drawing industry's attention to itself due to the demand for quality products and the high level of competition in the market. This scenario can be supported by a maturity model that continuously improves the discipline of testing when applied to the software development lifecycle. Therefore, MPT.BR, the acronym in Portuguese for Improving Test Processing. Brazil, is presented as a maturity model for testing to help when introducing testing disciplines in software organizations. It can be seen as an alternative for companies that aim to increase their product quality and ROI. MPT.BR has been applied over the last 3 years in small and medium-sized software organizations, the results of which will be discussed in this paper. <s> BIB002 </s> Software Testing Process Models Benefits&Drawbacks: a Systematic Literature Review <s> Discussion <s> Software products quality is strongly influenced by the quality of the process that generated them; particularly, the testing process contributes to product quality and represents a significant effort in software development projects. In this context, this study aim to find which test process models has been defined, adapted or extended in software industry from 1990 to the current date. For this purpose, a systematic literature review has been performed according to relevant guidelines. This study has identified 23 test process models, many of them adapted or extended from TMMi and TPI, which have different architectures and the new ISO/IEC 29119 with an architectural approach aligned to other ISO/IEC software process models. <s> BIB003
The SLR on software testing models was conducted to identify existing testing models and their characteristics such as domain, context of application, aspects improved, advantages and drawbacks, which can help organizations in selecting an appropriate model for a testing process. The first question [RQ1] focused on the list of existing testing models gathered from the empirical studies presented in Section 4.1 and models characteristics such as the domain of application. The final list of models is similar to the second survey of Afzal et al.  except TPI-Automotive and TPI NEXT. Moreover, we included the MPT.BR model [TM6], which was developed for small organizations and is applied by several software organizations in Brazil BIB002 . Because of insufficient set of case studies, we manually added several articles referenced in the survey of Afzal et al.  , which lead to extended information. Overall we included seventeen models, with ten that are supported by a maturity model. The second part of the first question relates to the expanded information about the models domain, for which the models are applicable. This knowledge is based on the area in which the empirical studies or the model application were performed. The results are shown in Section 4.1. Several standards were developed specifically for one domain such as Emb-TPI [TM4] for embedded software or ATG add-on for TPI [TM16] for Automated testing. On the other hand, some models were applied to a specific domain, but they do not have to be limited only to this area: for instance the PDCA-based software testing improvement framework [TM12] was applied to third party testing centers BIB001 . The aspects that were improved by the testing models are discussed in the second question [RQ2] and answered in Section 4.2. We observed that the most supported aspect in the studies is the improvement of the overall testing process by means of more formalization. Through the application of models, organizations improved and standardized their way of testing, which significantly influenced the product quality. Some studies focus more on other aspects such as measurements, defects or agile processes. The third question [RQ3] focuses on the advantages and drawbacks of approaches in concrete cases. Tables of summarized information are presented in Section 4.3. The authors of empirical studies usually interpreted the drawbacks of testing models as a reason to develop new testing approaches, which will cover the deficiencies. On the other hand, the benefits came from the successful implementation of the models. Compared to other surveys, Garcia et al. BIB003 summarize details about models but they are not very extensive. The last question [RQ4] includes the mapping of models' phases and practices to the specific domains. The results are presented in Section 4.4. The practices of models, which are not developed for a specific domain are better documented and presented in the studies, specifically the TMMi model. The Embedded Software domain is not included in the results because there are no practices reported in the study. Practices for the Military Systems domain are discussed only for the planning phase, but most of the practices can be taken from the general models.