Configuration Management (CM) in CI/CD pipelines manages and tracks changes to ensure that all configurations are consistently integrated and deployed. This means CM keeps a record of all versions, changes, and configurations so that teams can retrieve previous versions and configurations if needed, ensuring repeatability and recoverability. The primary role of CM is to provide a controlled method to manage changes to both the application code and the environments where the application runs.

The closing meeting is the phase during the review process where all identified issues, findings, and observations are finalized, documented, and agreed upon by all participants. This step ensures that there's clarity on the identified defects and the action items required to rectify them.

In white-box testing, "coverage" refers to the amount or percentage of the codebase that has been tested. It provides an objective measure to ensure that most, if not all, paths, branches, statements, and conditions in the code have been exercised.

In the V-model, each development stage corresponds to a testing phase. As the development progresses downwards on the left side of the "V", testing activities are prepared. When development reaches integration and system levels, the testing phases commence upwards on the right side of the "V". This ensures that testing is integrated in parallel with development, unlike the Waterfall model where testing happens after the entire development phase.

The risk avoidance strategy involves taking actions to remove the threat or condition that represents the risk entirely, essentially ensuring that the risk event doesn't occur. This strategy is employed when risks are deemed too high and cannot be mitigated.

QTP stands for QuickTest Professional. However, it was later rebranded by Hewlett-Packard (HP) as "Unified Functional Testing" (UFT). UFT provides a comprehensive solution for functional and regression testing and is one of the most popular tools in the testing industry for automating GUI testing tasks.

Exit criteria in the Software Testing Life Cycle (STLC) are a pre-defined set of conditions or metrics which must be achieved to conclude a testing phase. These conditions could include factors like achieving a certain percentage of test coverage, a limited number of high-severity defects remaining open, meeting performance benchmarks, etc. Having a clear exit criteria ensures that a testing phase achieves its intended quality objectives before moving to the next phase.

Decision Coverage in white-box testing ensures that each decision point or branch has been executed for both 'true' and 'false' conditions. It is more robust than simple statement coverage because it ensures that each decision leads the control flow in both directions.

Load Testing is specifically designed to simulate a specific expected load on a system to determine how it behaves. For an e-commerce website expecting a surge in traffic, it's crucial to understand how the system will handle the increased number of users to ensure seamless shopping experiences.

While automated testing provides speed and repeatability, it's less flexible when dealing with frequently changing interfaces. In situations where the application interface is evolving rapidly, manual testing is more adaptable and can more effectively handle changes without the need for constant script updates.