The six steps/stages of a PenTest…

1. Pre-Engagement: Planning & Scope
2. Recon: Information Gathering
3. Scanning
4. Exploitation
5. Post-Exploitation
6. Post-Engagement: Report

Outline of the Pre-Engagement Stage:

1. Plan (including: purpose, goals, objectives, etc.)
2. Scope (what's in scope and what's out of scope)
3. Rules of Engagement (RoE)
4. GOAL: A clearly defined and agreed upon written Statement of Work (SoW)