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CS605 - Software Engineering II

Glossary

Abstraction : Abstraction - (1) the level of technical detail of some representation of software; (2) a cohesive model of data or an algorithmic procedure

Adaptive

maintenance :

Adaptive maintenance - activity associate with changing an application to make it conform to changes in its external environment

Agile

development :

Agile development (also referred to as agile process model) - an adapted version of software engineering that emphasizes customer communication, incremental software delivery, informal methods and work products, and highly motivated teams.

Analysis : Analysis - a set of activities that attempt to understand and model customer needs and constraints

Architectural

design :

Architectural design - an activity that attempts to layout the module "floor plan" for the software

Architecture : Architecture - the overall structure of software components, the data and/or content that components manipulate, and the relationships between them

Automatic code

generation :

Automatic code generation - tools that generate source code from a representation of software that is not source code

Baseline : Baseline - a point at which some deliverable produced during the software engineering process is put under formal change control

Behavioral

modeling :

Behavioral modeling - representing the mode of behavior (called states) of an application and the events that cause transitions from state to state

Beta testing : Beta testing - testing that is conducted by the user

Black box testing

:

Black box testing - testing that does not focus on the internal details of the program but uses external requirements

Business risks : Business risks - the set of potential business problems or occurrences that may cause the project to fail

CASE : CASE - Computer-aided software engineering,

Change control : Change control - an umbrella process that enables a project team to accept, evaluate, and act on changes in a systematic manner

Change control

authority (CCA) :

Change control authority (CCA) - the person(s) who have responsibility for deciding whether a change is to be made

Change

management :

Change management - a set of software engineering actions that helps ensure that changes are properly identified, controlled, and reported

Classes : Classes - a basic construct in object-oriented methods that categorizes elements of the problem

Cohesion : Cohesion - an informal measure of the degree to which a software component implements a single, focused function

Complexity : Complexity - a quantitative measure of a program's complexity

Configuration : Configuration - the collection of programs, documents and data that must be controlled when changes are to be made

Configuration

audit :

Configuration audit - an activity performed by an SQA group with the intent of ensuring that the change control process is working

Configuration

control :

Configuration control - the control of changes to programs, documents or data

Coupling : Coupling - an informal measure of the degree to which a software component is connected to other components, to data, and to the external environment

Cyclomatic

complexity :

Cyclomatic complexity - a measure of the logical complexity of an algorithm, used in white-box testing

Data design : Data design - an activity that translates the data model developed during analysis into implementable data structures

Data flow

diagram (DFD) :

Data flow diagram (DFD) - a modeling notation that represents a functional decomposition of a system

Data modeling : Data modeling - an analysis method that models data objects and their relationships

Defect

amplification :

Defect amplification - when a defect is introduced early in the software process and remains undetected, it often is amplified into multiple defects later in the software process

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Defect removal

efficiency (DRE) :

Defect removal efficiency (DRE) - a nondimension ratio (between 0 and 1) that provides an indication of the degree to which errors are removed from software before it is released to end-users

Design

specification :

Design specification - a document that describes the design

Domain analysis : Domain analysis - an object-oriented software engineering activity that attempts to identify classes that are relevant to an entire application domain, rather than a specific application

Effort : Effort - the work-time product (e.g., person-days) associated with a project

Enhancement : Enhancement - an extension of functional or performance requirements

Errors : Errors - a lack of conformance found before software is delivered to the customer

Estimation : Estimation - a project planning activity that attempts to project effort and cost for a software project

Extreme

programming :

Extreme programming - an agile process model that emphasizes scenario-based planning, incremental delivery, refactoring, pair programming and continuous testing.

Factoring : Factoring - a technique that distributes control and work in a top-down manner within a software architecture (used a part of structured analysis)

Formal methods : Formal methods - a software engineering approach in which specification and design are described using mathematically-based formal notation

Formal technical

reviews :

Formal technical reviews - a structured meeting conducted by software engineering with the intent of uncovering errors in some deliverable or work product

Function points : Function points - a measure of the utility delivered by an application

Functional

decomposition :

Functional decomposition - a technique used during planning, analysis and design; creates a functional hierarchy for the software

GQM (Goal,

Question, Metric)

paradigm :

GQM (Goal, Question, Metric) paradigm - a technique for defining meaningful metrics for any part of the software process

Grammatical

parse :

Grammatical parse - a technique that is used during analysis and intended to help isolate basic data objects and function

High-order tests : High-order tests - black-box tests conducted once the software has been integrated

Integration

testing :

Integration testing - a testing step that constructs the software while testing it

Interface design : Interface design - a software engineering action that establishes the structure and workflow for a user interface; follows three "golden rules:" place the user in control, reduce the user's memory leoad, make the interface consistent

Interoperability : Interoperability - the degree to which one application communicates or interfaces with another

ISO 9001:2000 : ISO 9001:2000 - a quality assurance standard that applies to software engineering

JAD : Joint application development (JAD) - a specific FAST technique

Levels of

abstraction :

Levels of abstraction - the degree of detail with which some representation of the software is presented

Line-of-code

metrics :

Line-of-code metrics - measures of quality or productivity that are normalized using lines of code produced

Load testing : Load testing - a testing task that determines how software (often a WebApp) will respond to various loading conditions

Loop testing : Loop testing - a white box testing technique that exercises program loops

Milestones : Milestones - a point in time that is used to indicate progress during a project

Navigation

analysis :

Navigation analysis - a Web engineering action that establishes how a user will navigate between various elements (e.g., content, functions) of a WebApp

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CS605 - Software EngineeringII

FAQs

Question: What is Software Engineering?

Answer: The application of a systematic, disciplined, quantifiable approach to development, operation, and maintenance of software; that is, the application of engineering to software. Interesting phrases include: * Ian Sommerville, *Software Engineering*, 5th edition, Addison-Wesley, 1996. The specification, development, management, and evolution of software systems. Not constrained by materials governed by physical laws or manufacturing processes. Theories, methods, and tools needed to develop software. Evolving models of the real world. * Stephen R. Schach, *Software Engineering*, 2nd Edition, Richard D.Irwin, Inc. and Aksen Associates, 1993. A discipline whose aim is the production of quality software, delivered on time, within budget, and satisfying users' needs. * Shari Lawrence Pfleeger, *Software Engineering: the Production of Quality Software*, 2nd Edition, Macmillan, 1991, ISBN 0-02-395115-X. Designing and developing high-quality software. Application of computer science techniques to a variety of problems. We are problem-solvers rather that theoreticians.

Question: What's a CASE Tool?

Answer: CASE stands for Computer Aided Software Engineering; it can be used to mean any computer-based tool for software planning, development, and evolution. Various people regularly call the following 'CASE': Structured Analysis (SA), Structured Design (SD), Editors, Compilers, Debuggers, Edit-Compile-Debug environments, Code Generators, Documentation Generators, Configuration Management, Release Management, Project Management, Scheduling, Tracking, Requirements Tracing, Change Management (CM), Defect Tracking, Structured Discourse, Documentation editing, Collaboration tools, Access Control, Integrated Project Support Environments (IPSEs), Intertool message systems, Reverse Engineering, Metric Analyzers.

Question: What's a 'function point'?

Answer: Function points and feature points are methods of estimating the "amount of functionality" required for a program, and are thus used to estimate project completion time. The basic idea involves counting inputs, outputs, and other features of a description of functionality. Bruno Peeters has collected a biblography on function points at http://www.qucis.queensu.ca/Software- Engineering/funcpoints.html.

Question: What's the 'spiral model'?

Answer: (1) Barry Boehm, "A Spiral Model of Software Development and Enhancement", ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes, August 1986. (2) Barry Boehm "A Spiral Model of Software Development and Enhancement" IEEE Computer, vol.21, #5, May 1988, pp 61-72. Basically, the idea is evolutionary development, using the waterfall model for each step; it's intended to help manage risks. Don't define in detail the entire system at first. The developers should only define the highest priority features. Define and implement those, then get feedback from users/customers (such feedback distinguishes "evolutionary" from "incremental" development). With this knowledge, they should then go back to define and implement more features in smaller chunks.

Question: What is a 'specmark'?

Answer: The SPECmark is the geometric mean of a series of benchmarks done by the SPEC group. There are a couple of suites, but in general SPECmark refers to the results of the first suite. The suite includes FORTRAN and C codes, mostly well known codes but slightly hacked versions.

Question: What is 'Hungarian Notation'?

Answer: A naming convention for C code. See Charles Simonyi and Martin Heller, "The Hungarian Revolution", BYTE, Aug. 1991 (vol. 16, no. 8). There are other naming conventions; see, e.g. "A Guide to Natural Naming", Daniel Keller, ETH, Projekt-Zentrum IDA, CH-8092 Zurich, Switzerland

Question: Are lines-of-code (LOC) a useful productivity measure?

Answer: Not unless you are very careful. Capers Jones' book has a detailed and insightful discussion of Lines of Code, including anomalies, and shows how to use it sensibly (eg in a single job shop, with a single language, and a standard company coding style). It is easy to cook up anomalies where LOC gives different numbers for code written in different styles, but pathological cases should get caught in code inspections.

Question: What is the SEI maturity model?

Answer: The quality of a software system is largely governed by the quality of the process used to develop and maintain the software. Basics: The first step in improving the existing situation is to get management buy-in and management action to clean up the software management processes (walk the talk, as TQMers frequently say). Integration: The second step is to get everyone working together as a team. Measurement: The third step is to establish objective ways of understanding status and predict where things are going in

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your process. Continuous improvement: Understand that this is building a foundation for continually getting better.

Question: What is 'cleanroom'?

Answer: 'Cleanroom' is a software process based on mathematical verification of compo nents and statistical system-level testing.

Question: What is the Personal Software Process?

Answer: A discipline for monitoring, testing, and improving your own Software Engi neering work. It's described the book *A Discipline for Software Engineering* by Watts S. Humphrey, Addison Wesley, 1995.

Question: What is software engineering, anyway?

Answer: The application of a disciplined engineering approach to the development of software systems. A body of knowledge and experience in software development practice and process.

Question: What is software engineering, anyway?

Answer: The application of a disciplined engineering approach to the development of software systems. A body of knowledge and experience in software development practice and process.

Question: I like computers. Is SE for me?

Answer: A. Software Engineering is all about using engineering principles for the production of software. If you like computers, like solving challenging problems and would like to make an impact on the world in which we all live, you should consider software engineering (SE). Computer systems are an integral part of today's society. Software is a critical component of all computer systems, including the "embedded systems" used in communication networks, vehicles, consumer electronics, and medical devices. Software engineers have the knowledge and skills needed to produce high-quality, effective software on which all these computer systems depend.

Question: What is the difference between computer engineering (CE), computer science (CS) and software engineering (SE)?

Answer: . While computer engineering programs include courses in software, SE programs incorporate much more detail in software development practice and process, including advanced areas of software architecture, requirements management, quality assurance, and process improvement. Software engineering programs do not stress computer hardware and electronics as much as computer engineering programs do. On the other hand, software engineering is based on computer science, as other engineering disciplines are based on natural or life sciences. However, software engineering adds an emphasis on issues of process, design, measurement, analysis and verification. In general, scientists seek new knowledge, while engineers want to build things, solve problems, and help people. Both roles are important.

Question: Why are software engineer needed?

Answer: Computer systems are pervasive and have a major impact on society. Software is a critical component of all computer systems, including the "embedded systems" used in communication networks, vehicles, consumer electronics and medical devices. Software engineers have the knowledge and skills needed to produce high-quality, effective software on which all these computer systems depend

Question: Do software engineers sit in front of a computer all day?

Answer: Software engineers often use computer-based tools, but the most important software engineering activities involve interaction with other people. Because software engineers seldom work in isolation, it is critical that they have good communication skills and are able to work as members of a team.

Question: What are the Software Engineering Outcomes?

Answer: Program Outcomes Upon successful completion of the software engineering program, graduates will: • understand and be able to apply mathematics, physical science, computer science and related disciplines. • understand and be able to apply principles of software engineering practice and process subject to realistic constraints • be able to analyze, document and track system requirements • be able to design, implement and maintain software systems • be able to verify and validate software systems • have an awareness of current industry standards and practices • be able to work in one or more application domains • understand and apply principles of team process and project management • have strong oral and written communication skills • be capable of independent learning • understand professional responsibility and the application of ethical principles • have knowledge of economics, humanities and social sciences

Question: What are the Software Engineering Objectives?

Answer: Program Objectives The software engineering program implements the university's mission by facilitating the personal and professional growth of its students so that they can become effective contributors to the engineering profession and to society as a whole. Graduates of the software engineering program will: • be able to unite theory with practice, be prepared and motivated to engage in lifelong learning, and have a

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solid foundation in mathematics and science. • be productive practitioners skilled in applying engineering process and practice to software components and systems. • be proficient in oral and written communication, and effective in teamwork. • actively demonstrate professional and ethical responsibility. • have the broad education and awareness of contemporary issues necessary to understand the societal and global impact of their profession.

Question: What is 'Software Quality Assurance'?

Answer: Software QA involves the entire software development PROCESS - monitoring and improving the process, making sure that any agreed-upon standards and procedures are followed, and ensuring that problems are found and dealt with. It is oriented to 'prevention'.

Question: What is 'Software Testing'?

Answer: Testing involves operation of a system or application under controlled conditions and evaluating the results (eg, 'if the user is in interface A of the application while using hardware B, and does C, then D should happen'). The controlled conditions should include both normal and abnormal conditions. Testing should intentionally attempt to make things go wrong to determine if things happen when they shouldn't or things don't happen when they should. It is oriented to 'detection'

Question: What are some recent major computer system failures caused by software bugs?

Answer: • In February of 2009 users of a major search engine site were prevented from clicking through to sites listed in search results for part of a day. It was reportedly due to software that did not effectively handle a mistakenly-placed "/" in an internal ancillary reference file that was frequently updated for use by the search engine. Users, instead of being able to click thru to listed sites, were instead redirected to an intermediary site which, as a result of the suddenly enormous load, was rendered unusable. • A large health insurance company was reportedly banned by regulators from selling certain types of insurance policies in January of 2009 due to ongoing computer system problems that resulted in denial of coverage for needed medications and mistaken overcharging or cancelation of benefits. The regulatory agency was quoted as stating that the problems were posing "a serious threat to the health and safety" of beneficiaries. • A news report in January 2009 indicated that a major IT and management consulting company was still battling years of problems in implementing its own internal accounting systems, including a 2005 implementation that reportedly "was attempted without adequate testing". • In August of 2008 it was reported that more than 600 U.S. airline flights were significantly delayed due to a software glitch in the U.S. FAA air traffic control system. The problem was claimed to be a 'packet switch' that 'failed due to a database mismatch', and occurred in the part of the system that handles required flight plans. • Software system problems at a large health insurance company in August 2008 were the cause of a privacy breach of personal health information for several hundred thousand customers, according to news reports. It was claimed that the problem was due to software that 'was not comprehensively tested'. • A major clothing retailer was reportedly hit with significant software and system problems when attempting to upgrade their online retailing systems in June 2008. Problems remained ongoing for some time. When the company made their public quarterly financial report, the software and system problems were claimed as the cause of the poor financial results. • Software problems in the automated baggage sorting system of a major airport in February 2008 prevented thousands of passengers from checking baggage for their flights. It was reported that the breakdown occurred during a software upgrade, despite pre-testing of the software. The system continued to have problems in subsequent months. • News reports in December of 2007 indicated that significant software problems were continuing to occur in a new ERP payroll system for a large urban school system. It was believed that more than one third of employees had received incorrect paychecks at various times since the new system went live the preceding January, resulting in overpayments of $53 million, as well as underpayments. An employees' union brought a lawsuit against the school system, the cost of the ERP system was expected to rise by 40%, and the non-payroll part of the ERP system was delayed. Inadequate testing reportedly contributed to the problems

Question: Does every software project need testers?

Answer: While all projects will benefit from testing, some projects may not require independent test staff to succeed. Which projects may not need independent test staff? The answer depends on the size and context of the project, the risks, the development methodology, the skill and experience of the developers, and other factors. For instance, if the project is a short-term, small, low risk project, with highly experienced programmers utilizing thorough unit testing or test-first development, then test engineers may not be required for the project to succeed. In some cases an IT organization may be too small or new to have a testing staff even if the situation calls for it. In these circumstances it may be appropriate to instead use contractors or outsourcing, or adjust the project management and development approach (by switching to more senior developers and agile test-first development, for example). Inexperienced managers sometimes gamble on the success of a project by skipping thorough testing or having programmers do post-development functional testing of their own work, a decidedly high risk gamble. For non-trivial-size

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projects or projects with non-trivial risks, a testing staff is usually necessary. As in any business, the use of personnel with specialized skills enhances an organization's ability to be successful in large, complex, or difficult tasks. It allows for both a) deeper and stronger skills and b) the contribution of differing perspectives. For example, programmers typically have the perspective of 'what are the technical issues in making this functionality work?'. A test engineer typically has the perspective of 'what might go wrong with this functionality, and how can we ensure it meets expectations?'. Technical people who can be highly effective in approaching tasks from both of those perspectives are rare, which is why, sooner or later, organizations bring in test specialists.

Question: Why does software have bugs?

Answer: • Miscommunication or no communication - as to specifics of what an application should or shouldn't do (the application's requirements). • software complexity - the complexity of current software applications can be difficult to comprehend for anyone without experience in modern-day software development. Multi-tier distributed systems, applications utilizing mutliple local and remote web services applications, data communications, enormous relational databases, security complexities, and sheer size of applications have all contributed to the exponential growth in software/system complexity. • Programming errors - programmers, like anyone else, can make mistakes. • changing requirements (whether documented or undocumented) - the end-user may not understand the effects of changes, or may understand and request them anyway - redesign, rescheduling of engineers, effects on other projects, work already completed that may have to be redone or thrown out, hardware requirements that may be affected, etc. If there are many minor changes or any major changes, known and unknown dependencies among parts of the project are likely to interact and cause problems, and the complexity of coordinating changes may result in errors. Enthusiasm of engineering staff may be affected. In some fast-changing business environments, continuously modified requirements may be a fact of life. In this case, management must understand the resulting risks, and QA and test engineers must adapt and plan for continuous extensive testing to keep the inevitable bugs from running out of control - see 'What can be done if requirements are changing continuously?' in the LFAQ. Also see information about 'agile' approaches such as XP, in Part 2 of the FAQ. • Time pressures - scheduling of software projects is difficult at best, often requiring a lot of guesswork. When deadlines loom and the crunch comes, mistakes will be made. • egos - people prefer to say things like: • 'no problem' • 'piece of cake' • 'I can whip that out in a few hours' • 'it should be easy to update that old code' • • instead of: • 'that adds a lot of complexity and we could end up • making a lot of mistakes' • 'we have no idea if we can do that; we'll wing it' • 'I can't estimate how long it will take, until I • take a close look at it' • 'we can't figure out what that old spaghetti code • did in the first place' • • If there are too many unrealistic 'no problem's', the • result is bugs. • • Poorly documented code - it's tough to maintain and modify code that is badly written or poorly documented; the result is bugs. In many organizations management provides no incentive for programmers to document their code or write clear, understandable, maintainable code. In fact, it's usually the opposite: they get points mostly for quickly turning out code, and there's job security if nobody else can understand it ('if it was hard to write, it should be hard to read'). • Software development tools - visual tools, class libraries, compilers, scripting tools, etc. often introduce their own bugs or are poorly documented, resulting in added bugs.

Question: How can new Software QA processes be introduced in an existing organization?

Answer: • A lot depends on the size of the organization and the risks involved. For large organizations with high-risk (in terms of lives or property) projects, serious management buy-in is required and a formalized QA process is necessary. • Where the risk is lower, management and organizational buy-in and QA implementation may be a slower, step-at-a-time process. QA processes should be balanced with productivity so as to keep bureaucracy from getting out of hand. • For small groups or projects, a more ad-hoc process may be appropriate, depending on the type of customers and projects. A lot will depend on team leads or managers, feedback to developers, and ensuring adequate communications among customers, managers, developers, and testers. • The most value for effort will often be in (a) requirements management processes, with a goal of clear, complete, testable requirement specifications embodied in requirements or design documentation, or in 'agile'-type environments extensive continuous coordination with end-users, (b) design inspections and code inspections, and (c) post-mortems/retrospectives. • Other possibilities include incremental self-managed team approaches such as 'Kaizen' methods of continuous process improvement, the Deming-Shewhart Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle, and others.

Question: What is verification?

Answer: Verification typically involves reviews and meetings to evaluate documents, plans, code, requirements, and specifications. This can be done with checklists, issues lists, walkthroughs, and inspection meetings

Question: What is verification?

Answer: Verification typically involves reviews and meetings to evaluate documents, plans, code, requirements, and specifications. This can be done with checklists, issues lists, walkthroughs, and inspection meetings

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Question: What is validation?

Answer: Validation typically involves actual testing and takes place after verifications are completed. The term 'IV & V' refers to Independent Verification and Validation.

Question: What is a 'walkthrough'?

Answer: A 'walkthrough' is an informal meeting for evaluation or informational purposes. Little or no preparation is usually required.

Question: What's an 'inspection'?

Answer: An inspection is more formalized than a 'walkthrough', typically with 3-8 people including a moderator, reader, and a recorder to take notes. The subject of the inspection is typically a document such as a requirements spec or a test plan, and the purpose is to find problems and see what's missing, not to fix anything. Attendees should prepare for this type of meeting by reading thru the document; most problems will be found during this preparation. The result of the inspection meeting should be a written report. Thorough preparation for inspections is difficult, painstaking work, but is one of the most cost effective methods of ensuring quality. Employees who are most skilled at inspections are like the 'eldest brother' in the parable in. Their skill may have low visibility but they are extremely valuable to any software development organization, since bug prevention is far more cost-effective than bug detection.

Question: What are 5 common problems in the software development process?

Answer: 1. Poor requirements - if requirements are unclear, incomplete, too general, and not testable, there may be problems. 2. Unrealistic schedule - if too much work is crammed in too little time, problems are inevitable. 3. Inadequate testing - no one will know whether or not the software is any good until customers complain or systems crash. 4. Featuritis - requests to add on new features after development goals are agreed on. 5. Miscommunication - if developers don't know what's needed or customer's have erroneous expectations, problems can be expected

Question: What are 5 common problems in the software development process?

Answer: 1. Poor requirements - if requirements are unclear, incomplete, too general, and not testable, there may be problems. 2. Unrealistic schedule - if too much work is crammed in too little time, problems are inevitable. 3. Inadequate testing - no one will know whether or not the software is any good until customers complain or systems crash. 4. Featuritis - requests to add on new features after development goals are agreed on. 5. Miscommunication - if developers don't know what's needed or customer's have erroneous expectations, problems can be expected

Question: What are 5 common solutions to software development problems?

Answer: 1. Solid requirements - clear, complete, detailed, cohesive, attainable, testable requirements that are agreed to by all players. In 'agile'-type environments, continuous close coordination with customers/end-users is necessary to ensure that changing/emerging requirements are understood. 2. Realistic schedules - allow adequate time for planning, design, testing, bug fixing, re-testing, changes, and documentation; personnel should be able to complete the project without burning out. 3. Adequate testing - start testing early on, re-test after fixes or changes, plan for adequate time for testing and bug-fixing. 'Early' testing could include static code analysis/testing, test-first development, unit testing by developers, built-in testing and diagnostic capabilities, automated post-build testing, etc. 4. Stick to initial requirements where feasible - be prepared to defend against excessive changes and additions once development has begun, and be prepared to explain consequences. If changes are necessary, they should be adequately reflected in related schedule changes. If possible, work closely with customers/end-users to manage expectations. In 'agile'-type environments, initial requirements may be expected to change significantly, requiring that true agile processes be in place and followed. 5. Communication - require walkthroughs and inspections when appropriate; make extensive use of group communication tools - groupware, wiki's, bug-tracking tools and change management tools, intranet capabilities, etc.; ensure that information/documentation is available and up-to-date - preferably electronic, not paper; promote teamwork and cooperation; use protoypes and/or continuous communication with end-users if possible to clarify expectations.

Question: What is software 'quality'?

Answer: Quality software is reasonably bug-free, delivered on time and within budget, meets requirements and/or expectations, and is maintainable. However, quality is obviously a subjective term. It will depend on who the 'customer' is and their overall influence in the scheme of things. A wide-angle view of the 'customers' of a software development project might include end-users, customer acceptance testers, customer contract officers, customer management, the development organization's management/accountants/testers/salespeople, future software maintenance engineers, stockholders, magazine columnists, etc. Each type of 'customer' will have their own slant on 'quality' - the accounting department might define quality in terms of profits while an end-user might define quality as user-friendly and bug-free.

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Question: What is 'good code'?

Answer: 'Good code' is code that works, is reasonably bug free, and is readable and maintainable. Some organizations have coding 'standards' that all developers are supposed to adhere to, but everyone has different ideas about what's best, or what is too many or too few rules. There are also various theories and metrics, such as McCabe Complexity metrics. It should be kept in mind that excessive use of standards and rules can stifle productivity and creativity. 'Peer reviews', 'buddy checks' pair programming, code analysis tools, etc. can be used to check for problems and enforce standards. For example, in C/C++ coding, here are some typical ideas to consider in setting rules/standards; these may or may not apply to a particular situation: 1. minimize or eliminate use of global variables. 2. use descriptive function and method names - use both upper and lower case, avoid abbreviations, use as many characters as necessary to be adequately descriptive (use of more than 20 characters is not out of line); be consistent in naming conventions. 3. use descriptive variable names - use both upper and lower case, avoid abbreviations, use as many characters as necessary to be adequately descriptive (use of more than 20 characters is not out of line); be consistent in naming conventions. 4. function and method sizes should be minimized; less than 100 lines of code is good, less than 50 lines is preferable. 5. function descriptions should be clearly spelled out in comments preceding a function's code. 6. organize code for readability. 7. use whitespace generously - vertically and horizontally 8. each line of code should contain 70 characters max. 9. one code statement per line. 10. coding style should be consistent throught a program (eg, use of brackets, indentations, naming conventions, etc.) 11. in adding comments, err on the side of too many rather than too few comments; a common rule of thumb is that there should be at least as many lines of comments (including header blocks) as lines of code. 12. no matter how small, an application should include documentaion of the overall program function and flow (even a few paragraphs is better than nothing); or if possible a separate flow chart and detailed program documentation. 13. make extensive use of error handling procedures and status and error logging. 14. for C++, to minimize complexity and increase maintainability, avoid too many levels of inheritance in class heirarchies (relative to the size and complexity of the application). Minimize use of multiple inheritance, and minimize use of operator overloading (note that the Java programming language eliminates multiple inheritance and operator overloading.) 15. for C++, keep class methods small, less than 50 lines of code per method is preferable. 16. for C++, make liberal use of exception handlers

Question: What is 'good design'?

Answer: 'Design' could refer to many things, but often refers to 'functional design' or 'internal design'. Good internal design is indicated by software code whose overall structure is clear, understandable, easily modifiable, and maintainable; is robust with sufficient error-handling and status logging capability; and works correctly when implemented. Good functional design is indicated by an application whose functionality can be traced back to customer and end-user requirements. For programs that have a user interface, it's often a good idea to assume that the end user will have little computer knowledge and may not read a user manual or even the on-line help; some common rules-of-thumb include: • The program should act in a way that least surprises the user • It should always be evident to the user what can be done next and how to exit • The program shouldn't let the users do something stupid without warning them

Question: What is SEI? CMM? CMMI? ISO? IEEE? ANSI? Will it help?

Answer: What is SEI? CMM? CMMI? ISO? IEEE? ANSI? Will it help? 1. SEI = 'Software Engineering Institute' at Carnegie-Mellon University; initiated by the U.S. Defense Department to help improve software development processes. 2. CMM = 'Capability Maturity Model', now called the CMMI ('Capability Maturity Model Integration'), developed by the SEI. It's a model of 5 levels of process 'maturity' that determine effectiveness in delivering quality software. It is geared to large organizations such as large U.S. Defense Department contractors. However, many of the QA processes involved are appropriate to any organization, and if reasonably applied can be helpful. Organizations can receive CMMI ratings by undergoing assessments by qualified auditors. o Level 1 - characterized by chaos, periodic panics, and heroic ? efforts required by individuals to successfully ? complete projects. Few if any processes in place; ? successes may not be repeatable. o Level 2 - software project tracking, requirements management, ? realistic planning, and configuration management ? processes are in place; successful practices can ? be repeated. o Level 3 - standard software development and maintenance processes ? are integrated throughout an organization; a Software ? Engineering Process Group is is in place to oversee ? software processes, and training programs are used to ? ensure understanding and compliance. o Level 4 - metrics are used to track productivity, processes, ? and products. Project performance is predictable, ? and quality is consistently high. o Level 5 - the focus is on continouous process improvement. The ? impact of new processes and technologies can be ? predicted and effectively implemented when required. Perspective on CMM ratings: During 1997-2001, 1018 organizations were assessed. Of those, 27% were rated at Level 1, 39% at 2, 23% at 3, 6% at 4, and 5% at 5. (For ratings during the period 1992-96, 62% were at Level 1, 23% at 2, 13% at 3, 2% at 4, and 0.4% at 5.) The median size of organizations was 100 software engineering/maintenance personnel; 32% of organizations were U.S. federal contractors or agencies. For those rated at Level 1, the

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most problematical key process area was in Software Quality Assurance. 3. ISO = 'International Organisation for Standardization' - The ISO 9001:2008 standard (which provides some clarifications of the previous standard 9001:2000) concerns quality systems that are assessed by outside auditors, and it applies to many kinds of production and manufacturing organizations, not just software. It covers documentation, design, development, production, testing, installation, servicing, and other processes. The full set of standards consists of: (a)Q9001-2008 - Quality Management Systems: Requirements; (b)Q9000-2000 - Quality Management Systems: Fundamentals and Vocabulary; (c)Q9004-2000 - Quality Management Systems: Guidelines for Performance Improvements. To be ISO 9001 certified, a third-party auditor assesses an organization, and certification is typically good for about 3 years, after which a complete reassessment is required. Note that ISO certification does not necessarily indicate quality products - it indicates only that documented processes are followed. Also see http://www.iso.org/ for the latest information. In the U.S. the standards can be purchased via the ASQ web site at http://www.asq.org/quality-press/ ISO 9126 is a standard for the evaluation of software quality and defines six high level quality characteristics that can be used in software evaluation. It includes functionality, reliability, usability, efficiency, maintainability, and portability. 4. IEEE = 'Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers' - among other things, creates standards such as 'IEEE Standard for Software Test Documentation' (IEEE/ANSI Standard 829), 'IEEE Standard of Software Unit Testing (IEEE/ANSI Standard 1008), 'IEEE Standard for Software Quality Assurance Plans' (IEEE/ANSI Standard 730), and others. 5. ANSI = 'American National Standards Institute', the primary industrial standards body in the U.S.; publishes some software-related standards in conjunction with the IEEE and ASQ (American Society for Quality).

Question: What is the 'software life cycle'?

Answer: The life cycle begins when an application is first conceived and ends when it is no longer in use. It includes aspects such as initial concept, requirements analysis, functional design, internal design, documentation planning, test planning, coding, document preparation, integration, testing, maintenance, updates, retesting, phase-out, and other aspects.

Question: What makes a good Software Test engineer?

Answer: A good test engineer has a 'test to break' attitude, an ability to take the point of view of the customer, a strong desire for quality, and an attention to detail. Tact and diplomacy are useful in maintaining a cooperative relationship with developers, and an ability to communicate with both technical (developers) and non-technical (customers, management) people is useful. Previous software development experience can be helpful as it provides a deeper understanding of the software development process, gives the tester an appreciation for the developers' point of view, and reduce the learning curve in automated test tool programming. Judgement skills are needed to assess high-risk or critical areas of an application on which to focus testing efforts when time is limited.

Question: What makes a good Software QA engineer?

Answer: The same qualities a good tester has are useful for a QA engineer. Additionally, they must be able to understand the entire software development process and how it can fit into the business approach and goals of the organization. Communication skills and the ability to understand various sides of issues are important. In organizations in the early stages of implementing QA processes, patience and diplomacy are especially needed. An ability to find problems as well as to see 'what's missing' is important for inspections and reviews.

Question: What makes a good Software QA engineer?

Answer: The same qualities a good tester has are useful for a QA engineer. Additionally, they must be able to understand the entire software development process and how it can fit into the business approach and goals of the organization. Communication skills and the ability to understand various sides of issues are important. In organizations in the early stages of implementing QA processes, patience and diplomacy are especially needed. An ability to find problems as well as to see 'what's missing' is important for inspections and reviews.

Question: What makes a good QA or Test manager?

Answer: A good QA, test, or QA/Test(combined) manager should: 1. be familiar with the software development process 2. be able to maintain enthusiasm of their team and promote a positive atmosphere, despite what is a somewhat 'negative' process (e.g., looking for or preventing problems) 3. be able to promote teamwork to increase productivity 4. be able to promote cooperation between software, test, and QA engineers 5. have the diplomatic skills needed to promote improvements in QA processes 6. have the ability to withstand pressures and say 'no' to other managers when quality is insufficient or QA processes are not being adhered to 7. have people judgement skills for hiring and keeping skilled personnel 8. be able to communicate with technical and non-technical people, engineers, managers, and customers. 9. be able to run meetings and keep them focused

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Question: What's the role of documentation in QA?

Answer: Generally, the larger the team/organization, the more useful it will be to stress documentation, in order to manage and communicate more efficiently. (Note that documentation may be electronic, not necessarily in printable form, and may be embedded in code comments, may be embodied in well-written test cases, user stories, etc.) QA practices may be documented to enhance their repeatability. Specifications, designs, business rules, configurations, code changes, test plans, test cases, bug reports, user manuals, etc. may be documented in some form. There would ideally be a system for easily finding and obtaining information and determining what documentation will have a particular piece of information. Change management for documentation can be used where appropriate. For agile software projects, it should be kept in mind that one of the agile values is "Working software over comprehensive documentation", which does not mean 'no' documentation. Agile projects tend to stress the short term view of project needs; documentation often becomes more important in a project's long-term context.

Question: What's the big deal about 'requirements'?

Answer: One of the most reliable methods of ensuring problems, or failure, in a large, complex software project is to have poorly documented requirements specifications. (Note that requirements documentation can be electronic, not necessarily in the form of printable documents, and may be embedded in code comments, may be embodied in well-written test cases, etc.) Requirements are the details describing an application's externally-perceived functionality and properties. Requirements should be clear, complete, reasonably detailed, cohesive, attainable, and testable. A non-testable requirement would be, for example, 'user-friendly' (too subjective). A more testable requirement would be something like 'the user must enter their previously-assigned password to access the application'. Determining and organizing requirements details in a useful and efficient way can be a difficult effort; different methods are available depending on the particular project. Many books are available that describe various approaches to this task. Care should be taken to involve ALL of a project's significant 'customers' in the requirements process. 'Customers' could be in-house personnel or outside personnel, and could include end-users, customer acceptance testers, customer contract officers, customer management, future software maintenance engineers, salespeople, etc. Anyone who could later derail the project if their expectations aren't met should be included if possible. Organizations vary considerably in their handling of requirements specifications. Often the requirements are spelled out in a document with statements such as 'The product shall.....'. 'Design' specifications should not be confused with 'requirements'; design specifications are ideally traceable back to the requirements. In some organizations requirements may end up in high level project plans, functional specification documents, in design documents, or in other documents at various levels of detail. No matter what they are called, some type of documentation with detailed requirements will be needed by testers in order to properly plan and execute tests. Without such documentation, there will be no clear-cut way to determine if a software application is performing correctly. 'Agile' approaches use methods requiring close interaction and cooperation between programmers and customers/end-users to iteratively develop requirements, user stories, etc. In the XP 'test first' approach developers create automated unit testing code before the application code, and these automated unit tests essentially embody the requirements.

Question: What steps are needed to develop and run software tests?

Answer: 1. Obtain requirements, functional design, and internal design specifications, user stories, and other available/necessary information 2. Obtain budget and schedule requirements 3. Determine project-related personnel and their responsibilities, reporting requirements, required standards and processes (such as release processes, change processes, etc.) 4. Determine project context, relative to the existing quality culture of the product/organization/business, and how it might impact testing scope, aproaches, and methods. 5. Identify application's higher-risk and mor important aspects, set priorities, and determine scope and limitations of tests. 6. Determine test approaches and methods - unit, integration, functional, system, security, load, usability tests, etc. 7. Determine test environment requirements (hardware, software, configuration, versions, communications, etc.) 8. Determine testware requirements (automation tools, coverage analyzers, test tracking, problem/bug tracking, etc.) 9. Determine test input data requirements 10. Identify tasks, those responsible for tasks, and labor requirements 11. Set schedule estimates, timelines, milestones 12. Determine, where apprapriate, input equivalence classes, boundary value analyses, error classes 13. Prepare test plan document(s) and have needed reviews/approvals 14. Write test cases 15. Have needed reviews/inspections/approvals of test cases 16. 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 17. Obtain and install software releases 18. Perform tests 19. Evaluate and report results 20. Track problems/bugs and fixes 21. Retest as needed 22. Maintain and update test plans, test cases, test environment, and testware through life cycle

Question: What's a 'test plan'?

Answer: A software project test plan is a document that describes the objectives, scope, approach, and focus of a

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software testing effort. The process of preparing a test plan is a useful way to think through the efforts needed to validate the acceptability of a software product. The completed document will help people outside the test group understand the 'why' and 'how' of product validation. It should be thorough enough to be useful but not so thorough that no one outside the test group will read it. The following are some of the items that might be included in a test plan, depending on the particular project: 1. Title 2. Identification of software including version/release numbers 3. Revision history of document including authors, dates, approvals 4. Table of Contents 5. Purpose of document, intended audience 6. Objective of testing effort 7. Software product overview 8. Relevant related document list, such as requirements, design documents, other test plans, etc. 9. Relevant standards or legal requirements 10. Traceability requirements 11. Relevant naming conventions and identifier conventions 12. Overall software project organization and personnel/contact-info/responsibilties 13. Test organization and personnel/contact-info/responsibilities 14. Assumptions and dependencies 15. Project risk analysis 16. Testing priorities and focus 17. Scope and limitations of testing 18. Test outline - a decomposition of the test approach by test type, feature, functionality, process, system, module, etc. as applicable 19. Outline of data input equivalence classes, boundary value analysis, error classes 20. Test environment - hardware, operating systems, other required software, data configurations, interfaces to other systems 21. Test environment validity analysis - differences between the test and production systems and their impact on test validity. 22. Test environment setup and configuration issues 23. Software migration processes 24. Software CM processes 25. Test data setup requirements 26. Database setup requirements 27. Outline of system-logging/error-logging/other capabilities, and tools such as screen capture software, that will be used to help describe and report bugs 28. Discussion of any specialized software or hardware tools that will be used by testers to help track the cause or source of bugs 29. Test automation - justification and overview 30. Test tools to be used, including versions, patches, etc. 31. Test script/test code maintenance processes and version control 32. Problem tracking and resolution - tools and processes 33. Project test metrics to be used 34. Reporting requirements and testing deliverables 35. Software entrance and exit criteria 36. Initial sanity testing period and criteria 37. Test suspension and restart criteria 38. Personnel allocation 39. Personnel pre-training needs 40. Test site/location 41. Outside test organizations to be utilized and their purpose, responsibilties, deliverables, contact persons, and coordination issues 42. Relevant proprietary, classified, security, and licensing issues. 43. Open issues 44. Appendix - glossary, acronyms, etc

Question: What's a 'test case'?

Answer: A test case describes an input, action, or event and an expected response, to determine if a feature of a software application is working correctly. A test case may contain particulars such as test case identifier, test case name, objective, test conditions/setup, input data requirements, steps, and expected results. The level of detail may vary significantly depending on the organization and project context. Note that the process of developing test cases can help find problems in the requirements or design of an application, since it requires completely thinking through the operation of the application. For this reason, it's useful to prepare test cases early in the development cycle if possible.

Question: What should be done after a bug is found?

Answer: The bug needs to be communicated and assigned to developers that can fix it. After the problem is resolved, fixes should be re-tested, and determinations made regarding requirements for regression testing to check that fixes didn't create problems elsewhere. If a problem-tracking system is in place, it should encapsulate these processes. A variety of commercial problem-tracking/management software tools are available. The following are items to consider in the tracking process: 1. Complete information such that developers can understand the bug, get an idea of it's severity, and reproduce it if necessary. 2. Bug identifier (number, ID, etc.) 3. Current bug status (e.g., 'Released for Retest', 'New', etc.) 4. The application name or identifier and version 5. The function, module, feature, object, screen, etc. where the bug occurred 6. Environment specifics, system, platform, relevant hardware specifics 7. Test case name/number/identifier 8. One-line bug description 9. Full bug description 10. Description of steps needed to reproduce the bug if not covered by a test case or if the developer doesn't have easy access to the test case/test script/test tool 11. Names and/or descriptions of file/data/messages/etc. used in test 12. File excerpts/error messages/log file excerpts/screen shots/test tool logs that would be helpful in finding the cause of the problem 13. Severity estimate (a 5-level range such as 1-5 or 'critical'-to-'low' is common) 14. Was the bug reproducible? 15. Tester name 16. Test date 17. Bug reporting date 18. Name of developer/group/organization the problem is assigned to 19. Description of problem cause 20. Description of fix 21. Code section/file/module/class/method that was fixed 22. Date of fix 23. Application version that contains the fix 24. Tester responsible for retest 25. Retest date 26. Retest results 27. Regression testing requirements 28. Tester responsible for regression tests 29. Regression testing results A reporting or tracking process should enable notification of appropriate personnel at various stages. For instance, testers need to know when retesting is needed, developers need to know when bugs are found and how to get the needed information, and reporting/summary capabilities are needed for managers.

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Question: What is 'configuration management'?

Answer: Configuration management covers the processes used to control, coordinate, and track: code, requirements, documentation, problems, change requests, designs, tools/compilers/libraries/patches, changes made to them, and who makes the changes.

Question: What is 'configuration management'?

Answer: Configuration management covers the processes used to control, coordinate, and track: code, requirements, documentation, problems, change requests, designs, tools/compilers/libraries/patches, changes made to them, and who makes the changes.

Question: What if the software is so buggy it can't really be tested at all?

Answer: The best bet in this situation is for the testers to go through the process of reporting whatever bugs or blocking-type problems initially show up, with the focus being on critical bugs. Since this type of problem can severely affect schedules, and indicates deeper problems in the software development process (such as insufficient unit testing or insufficient integration testing, poor design, improper build or release procedures, etc.) managers should be notified, and provided with some documentation as evidence of the problem.

Question: How can it be known when to stop testing?

Answer: This can be difficult to determine. Most modern software applications are so complex, and run in such an interdependent environment, that complete testing can never be done. Common factors in deciding when to stop are: 1. Deadlines (release deadlines, testing deadlines, etc.) 2. Test cases completed with certain percentage passed 3. Test budget depleted 4. Coverage of code/functionality/requirements reaches a specified point 5. Bug rate falls below a certain level 6. Beta or alpha testing period ends

Question: What if there isn't enough time for thorough testing?

Answer: Use risk analysis, along with discussion with project stakeholders, to determine where testing should be focused. Since it's rarely possible to test every possible aspect of an application, every possible combination of events, every dependency, or everything that could go wrong, risk analysis is appropriate to most software development projects. This requires judgement skills, common sense, and experience. (If warranted, formal methods are also available.) Considerations can include: 1. Which functionality is most important to the project's intended purpose? 2. Which functionality is most visible to the user? 3. Which functionality has the largest safety impact? 4. Which functionality has the largest financial impact on users? 5. Which aspects of the application are most important to the customer? 6. Which aspects of the application can be tested early in the development cycle? 7. Which parts of the code are most complex, and thus most subject to errors? 8. Which parts of the application were developed in rush or panic mode? 9. Which aspects of similar/related previous projects caused problems? 10. Which aspects of similar/related previous projects had large maintenance expenses? 11. Which parts of the requirements and design are unclear or poorly thought out? 12. What do the developers think are the highest-risk aspects of the application? 13. What kinds of problems would cause the worst publicity? 14. What kinds of problems would cause the most customer service complaints? 15. What kinds of tests could easily cover multiple functionalities? 16. Which tests will have the best high-risk-coverage to time-required ratio?

Question: What if there isn't enough time for thorough testing?

Answer: Use risk analysis, along with discussion with project stakeholders, to determine where testing should be focused. Since it's rarely possible to test every possible aspect of an application, every possible combination of events, every dependency, or everything that could go wrong, risk analysis is appropriate to most software development projects. This requires judgement skills, common sense, and experience. (If warranted, formal methods are also available.) Considerations can include: 1. Which functionality is most important to the project's intended purpose? 2. Which functionality is most visible to the user? 3. Which functionality has the largest safety impact? 4. Which functionality has the largest financial impact on users? 5. Which aspects of the application are most important to the customer? 6. Which aspects of the application can be tested early in the development cycle? 7. Which parts of the code are most complex, and thus most subject to errors? 8. Which parts of the application were developed in rush or panic mode? 9. Which aspects of similar/related previous projects caused problems? 10. Which aspects of similar/related previous projects had large maintenance expenses? 11. Which parts of the requirements and design are unclear or poorly thought out? 12. What do the developers think are the highest-risk aspects of the application? 13. What kinds of problems would cause the worst publicity? 14. What kinds of problems would cause the most customer service complaints? 15. What kinds of tests could easily cover multiple functionalities? 16. Which tests will have the best high-risk-coverage to time-required ratio?

Question: What if the project isn't big enough to justify extensive testing?

Answer: Consider the impact of project errors, not the size of the project. However, if extensive testing is still not justified, risk analysis is again needed and the same considerations as described previously in apply. The

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tester might then do ad-hoc testing, or write up a limited test plan based on the risk analysis.

Question: How does a client/server environment affect testing?

Answer: Client/server applications can be quite complex due to the multiple dependencies among clients, data communications, hardware, and servers, especially in multi-tier systems. Thus testing requirements can be extensive. When time is limited (as it usually is) the focus should be on integration and system testing. Additionally, load/stress/performance testing may be useful in determining client/server application limitations and capabilities. There are commercial tools to assist with such testing.

Question: How can World Wide Web sites be tested?

Answer: Web sites are essentially client/server applications - with web servers and 'browser' clients. Consideration should be given to the interactions between html pages, web services, encrypted communications, Internet connections, firewalls, applications that run in web pages (such as javascript, flash, other plug-in applications), the wide variety of applications that could run on the server side, etc. Additionally, there are a wide variety of servers and browsers, various versions of each, small but sometimes significant differences between them, variations in connection speeds, rapidly changing technologies, and multiple standards and protocols. The end result is that testing for web sites can become a major ongoing effort. Other considerations might include: 1. What are the expected loads on the server (e.g., number of hits per unit time?), and what kind of performance is required under such loads (such as web server response time, database query response times). What kinds of tools will be needed for performance testing (such as web load testing tools, other tools already in house that can be adapted, load generation appliances, etc.)? 2. Who is the target audience? What kind and version of browsers will they be using, and how extensively should testing be for these variations? What kind of connection speeds will they by using? Are they intra- organization (thus with likely high connection speeds and similar browsers) or Internet-wide (thus with a wide variety of connection speeds and browser types)? 3. What kind of performance is expected on the client side (e.g., how fast should pages appear, how fast should flash, applets, etc. load and run)? 4. Will down time for server and content maintenance/upgrades be allowed? how much? 5. What kinds of security (firewalls, encryption, passwords, functionality, etc.) will be required and what is it expected to do? How can it be tested? 6. What internationilization/localization/language requirements are there, and how are they to be verified? 7. How reliable are the site's Internet connections required to be? And how does that affect backup system or redundant connection requirements and testing? 8. What processes will be required to manage updates to the web site's content, and what are the requirements for maintaining, tracking, and controlling page content, graphics, links, etc.? 9. Which HTML and related specification will be adhered to? How strictly? What variations will be allowed for targeted browsers? 10. Will there be any standards or requirements for page appearance and/or graphics throughout a site or parts of a site? 11. Will there be any development practices/standards utilized for web page components and identifiers, which can significantly impact test automation. 12. How will internal and external links be validated and updated? how often? 13. Can testing be done on the production system, or will a separate test system be required? How are browser caching, variations in browser option settings, connection variabilities, and real-world internet 'traffic congestion' problems to be accounted for in testing? 14. How extensive or customized are the server logging and reporting requirements; are they considered an integral part of the system and do they require testing? 15. How are flash, applets, javascripts, ActiveX components, etc. to be maintained, tracked, controlled, and tested?

Question: How is testing affected by object-oriented designs?

Answer: Well-engineered object-oriented design can make it easier to trace from code to internal design to functional design to requirements. While there will be little affect on black box testing (where an understanding of the internal design of the application is unnecessary), white-box testing can be oriented to the application's objects. If the application was well-designed this can simplify test design.

Question: What is Extreme Programming and what's it got to do with testing?

Answer: Extreme Programming (XP) is a software development approach for small teams on risk-prone projects with unstable requirements. It was created by Kent Beck who described the approach in his book 'Extreme Programming Explained'. Testing ('extreme testing') is a core aspect of Extreme Programming. Programmers are expected to write unit and functional test code first - before writing the application code. Test code is under source control along with the rest of the code. Customers are expected to be an integral part of the project team and to help develope scenarios for acceptance/black box testing. Acceptance tests are preferably automated, and are modified and rerun for each of the frequent development iterations. QA and test personnel are also required to be an integral part of the project team. Detailed requirements documentation is not used, and frequent re-scheduling, re-estimating, and re-prioritizing is expected. For more info on XP and other 'agile' software development approaches

Question: What is Extreme Programming and what's it got to do with testing?

Answer: Extreme Programming (XP) is a software development approach for small teams on risk-prone projects

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with unstable requirements. It was created by Kent Beck who described the approach in his book 'Extreme Programming Explained'. Testing ('extreme testing') is a core aspect of Extreme Programming. Programmers are expected to write unit and functional test code first - before writing the application code. Test code is under source control along with the rest of the code. Customers are expected to be an integral part of the project team and to help develope scenarios for acceptance/black box testing. Acceptance tests are preferably automated, and are modified and rerun for each of the frequent development iterations. QA and test personnel are also required to be an integral part of the project team. Detailed requirements documentation is not used, and frequent re-scheduling, re-estimating, and re-prioritizing is expected. For more info on XP and other 'agile' software development approaches

Question: Why is it often hard for organizations to get serious about quality assurance?

Answer: Solving problems is a high-visibility process; preventing problems is low-visibility. This is illustrated by an old parable: In ancient China there was a family of healers, one of whom was known throughout the land and employed as a physician to a great lord. The physician was asked which of his family was the most skillful healer. He replied, "I tend to the sick and dying with drastic and dramatic treatments, and on occasion someone is cured and my name gets out among the lords." "My elder brother cures sickness when it just begins to take root, and his skills are known among the local peasants and neighbors." "My eldest brother is able to sense the spirit of sickness and eradicate it before it takes form. His name is unknown outside our home." This is a problem in any business, but it's a particularly difficult problem in the software industry. Software quality problems are often not as readily apparent as they might be in the case of an industry with more physical products, such as auto manufacturing or home construction. Additionally: Many organizations are able to determine who is skilled at fixing problems, and then reward such people. However, determining who has a talent for preventing problems in the first place, and figuring out how to incentive's such behavior, is a significant challenge.

Question: Who is responsible for risk management?

Answer: Risk management means the actions taken to avoid things going wrong on a software development project, things that might negatively impact the scope, quality, timeliness, or cost of a project. This is, of course, a shared responsibility among everyone involved in a project. However, there needs to be a 'buck stops here' person who can consider the relevant tradeoffs when decisions are required, and who can ensure that everyone is handling their risk management responsibilities. It is not unusual for the term 'risk management' to never come up at all in a software organization or project. If it does come up, it's often assumed to be the responsibility of QA or test personnel. Or there may be a 'risks' or 'issues' section of a project, QA, or test plan, and it's assumed that this means that risk management has taken place. The issues here are similar to those for the LFAQ question "Who should decide when software is ready to be released?" It's generally NOT a good idea for a test lead, test manager, or QA manager to be the 'buck stops here' person for risk management. Typically QA/Test personnel or managers are not managers of developers, analysts, designers and many other project personnel, and so it would be difficult for them to ensure that everyone on a project is handling their risk management responsibilities. Additionally, knowledge of all the considerations that go into risk management mitigation and tradeoff decisions is rarely the province of QA/Test personnel or managers. Based on these factors, the project manager is usually the most appropriate 'buck stops here' risk management person. QA/Test personnel can, however, provide input to the project manager. Such input could include analysis of quality-related risks, risk monitoring, process adherence reporting, defect reporting, and other information.

Question: What if an organization is growing so fast that fixed QA processes are impossible?

Answer: This is a common problem in the software industry, especially in new technology areas. There is generally no easy solution in this situation. One approach is: • Hire good people • Management should 'ruthlessly prioritize' quality issues and maintain focus on the customer • Everyone in the organization should be clear on what 'quality' means to the customer Depending on the growth rate, it is possible that incremental self-managed team approaches may be applicable, such as 'Kaizen' methods of continuous process improvement, or the Deming-Shewhart Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle, and others.

Question: Will automated testing tools make testing easier?

Answer: • Possibly. For small projects, the time needed to learn and implement them may not be worth it unless personnel are already familiar with the tools. For larger projects, or on-going long-term projects they can be valuable. • A common type of automated tool is the 'record/playback' type. For example, a tester could click through all combinations of menu choices, dialog box choices, buttons, etc. in an application GUI and have them 'recorded' and the results logged by a tool. The 'recording' is typically in the form of text based on a scripting language that is interpretable by the testing tool. Usually the recorded script is manually modified and enhanced. If new buttons are added, or some underlying code in the application is changed, etc. the application might then be retested by just 'playing back' the 'recorded' actions, and comparing the logging results to check effects of the changes. The problem with such tools is that if there are continual

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changes to the system being tested, the 'recordings' may have to be changed so much that it becomes very time-consuming to continuously update the scripts. Additionally, interpretation and analysis of results (screens, data, logs, etc.) can be a difficult task. Note that there are record/playback tools for text-based interfaces also, and for all types of platforms. • Another common type of approach for automation of functional testing is 'data-driven' or 'keyword-driven' automated testing, in which the test drivers are separated from the data and/or actions utilized in testing (an 'action' would be something like 'enter a value in a text box'). Test drivers can be in the form of automated test tools or custom-written testing software. The data and actions can be more easily maintained - such as via a spreadsheet - since they are separate from the test drivers. The test drivers 'read' the data/action information to perform specified tests. This approach can enable more efficient control, development, documentation, and maintenance of automated tests/test cases. • Other automated tools can include: code analyzers - monitor code complexity, adherence to standards, etc. coverage analyzers - these tools check which parts of the code have been exercised by a test, and may be oriented to code statement coverage, condition coverage, path coverage, etc. memory analyzers - such as bounds-checkers and leak detectors. load/performance test tools - for testing client/server and web applications under various load levels. web test tools - to check that links are valid, HTML code usage is correct, client-side and server-side programs work, a web site's interactions are secure. other tools - for test case management, documentation management, bug reporting, and configuration management, file and database comparisons, screen captures, security testing, macro recorders, etc.

Question: What's the best way to choose a test automation tool?

Answer: It's easy to get caught up in enthusiasm for the 'silver bullet' of test automation, where the dream is that a single mouse click can initialize thorough unattended testing of an entire software application, bugs will be automatically reported, and easy-to-understand summary reports will be waiting in the manager's in-box in the morning. Although that may in fact be possible in some situations, it is not the way things generally play out. In manual testing, the test engineer exercises software functionality to determine if the software is behaving in an expected way. This means that the tester must be able to judge what the expected outcome of a test should be, such as expected data outputs, screen messages, changes in the appearance of a User Interface, XML files, database changes, etc. In an automated test, the computer does not have human-like 'judgement' capabilities to determine whether or not a test outcome was correct. This means there must be a mechanism by which the computer can do an automatic comparison between actual and expected results for every automated test scenario and unambiguously make a pass or fail determination. This factor may require a significant change in the entire approach to testing, since in manual testing a human is involved and can: • make mental adjustments to expected test results based on variations in the pre-test state of the software system • often make on-the-fly adjustments, if needed, to data used in the test • make pass/fail judgements about results of each test • make quick judgements and adjustments for changes to requirements. • make a wide variety of other types of judgements and adjustments as needed.

Question: What is 'Software Testing'?

Answer: Testing involves operation of a system or application under controlled conditions and evaluating the results. Testing should intentionally attempt to make things go wrong to determine if things happen when they shouldn't or things don't happen when they should.

Question: Does every software project need testers?

Answer: It depends on the size and context of the project, the risks, the development methodology, the skill and experience of the developers. If the project is a short-term, small, low risk project, with highly experienced programmers utilizing thorough unit testing or test-first development, then test engineers may not be required for the project to succeed. For non-trivial-size projects or projects with non-trivial risks, a testing staff is usually necessary. The use of personnel with specialized skills enhances an organization's ability to be successful in large, complex, or difficult tasks. It allows for both a) deeper and stronger skills and b) the contribution of differing perspectives.

Question: What is Regression testing?

Answer: Retesting of a previously tested program following modification to ensure that faults have not been introduced or uncovered as a result of the changes made

Question: Why does software have bugs?

Answer: Some of the reasons are: 1. Miscommunication or no communication. 2. Programming errors 3. Changing requirements 4. Time pressures

Question: How can new Software QA processes be introduced in an existing Organization?

Answer: It depends on the size of the organization and the risks involved. 1. For small groups or projects, a more ad-hoc process may be appropriate, depending on the type of customers and projects. 2. By incremental self managed team approaches.

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Question: What kinds of testing should be considered?

Answer: Some of the basic kinds of testing involve: Blackbox testing, Whitebox testing, Integration testing, Functional testing, smoke testing, Acceptance testing, Load testing, Performance testing, User acceptance testing

Question: What are 5 common problems in the software development process?

Answer: 1. Poor requirements 2. Unrealistic Schedule 3. Inadequate testing 4. Changing requirements 5. Miscommunication

Question: How can it be determined if a test environment is appropriate?

Answer: Test environment should match exactly all possible hardware, software, network, data, and usage characteristics of the expected live environments in which the software will be used.

Question: What's the best approach to software test estimation?

Answer: The 'best approach' is highly dependent on the particular organization and project and the experience of the personnel involved Some of the following approaches to be considered are: 1. Implicit Risk Context Approach 2. Metrics-Based Approach 3. Test Work Breakdown Approach 4. Iterative Approach 5. Percentage-of-Development Approach

Question: What if the software is so buggy it can't really be tested at all?

Answer: The best bet in this situation is for the testers to go through the process of reporting whatever bugs or blocking-type problems initially show up, with the focus being on critical bugs.

Question: How can it be known when to stop testing?

Answer: Common factors in deciding when to stop are: 1. Deadlines (release deadlines, testing deadlines, etc.) 2. Test cases completed with certain percentage passed 3. Test budget depleted 4. Coverage of code/functionality/requirements reaches a specified point 5. Bug rate falls below a certain level 6. Beta or alpha testing period ends

Question: What if there isn't enough time for thorough testing?

Answer: 1. Use risk analysis to determine where testing should be focused. 2. Determine the important functionalities to be tested. 3. Determine the high risk aspects of the project. 4. Prioritize the kinds of testing that need to be performed. 5. Determine the tests that will have the best high-risk-coverage to time-required ratio

Question: How can World Wide Web sites be tested?

Answer: Some of the considerations might include: 1. Testing the expected loads on the server 2. Performance expected on the client side 3. Testing the required securities to be implemented and verified. 4. Testing the HTML specification, external and internal links cgi programs, applets, javascripts, ActiveX components, etc. to be maintained, tracked, controlled

Question: What's the role of documentation in QA?

Answer: QA practices should be documented such that they are repeatable. Specifications, designs, business rules, inspection reports, configurations, code changes, test plans, test cases, bug reports, user manuals, etc. should all be documented. Change management for documentation should be used.

Question: What is a test strategy?

Answer: It is a plan for conducting the test effort against one or more aspects of the target system. A test strategy needs to be able to convince management and other stakeholders that the approach is sound and achievable, and it also needs to be appropriate both in terms of the software product to be tested and the skills of the test team.

Question: What information does a test strategy captures?

Answer: It captures an explanation of the general approach that will be used and the specific types, techniques, styles of testing

Question: What is test data?

Answer: It is a collection of test input values that are consumed during the execution of a test, and expected results referenced for comparative purposes during the execution of a test.

Question: What is Unit testing?

Answer: It is implemented against the smallest testable element (units) of the software, and involves testing the internal structure such as logic and data flow, and the unit's function and observable behaviors.

Question: How can the test results be used in testing?

Answer: Test Results are used to record the detailed findings of the test effort and to subsequently calculate the different key measures of testing.

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Question: What is Developer testing?

Answer: Developer testing denotes the aspects of test design and implementation most appropriate for the team of developers to undertake.

Question: What is independent testing?

Answer: Independent testing denotes the test design and implementation most appropriately performed by someone who is independent from the team of develop

Question: What is Integration testing?

Answer: Integration testing is performed to ensure that the components in the implementation model operate properly when combined to execute a use case.

Question: What is System testing?

Answer: A series of tests designed to ensure that the modified program interacts correctly with other system components. These test procedures typically are performed by the system maintenance staff in their development library.

Question: What is Acceptance testing?

Answer: User acceptance testing is the final test action taken before deploying the software. The goal of acceptance testing is to verify that the software is ready, and that it can be used by end users to perform those functions and tasks for which the software was built.

Question: What is the role of a Test Manager?

Answer: The Test Manager role is tasked with the overall responsibility for the test effort's success. The role involves quality and test advocacy, resource planning and management, and resolution of issues that impede the test effort.

Question: What is the role of a Test Analyst?

Answer: The Test Analyst role is responsible for identifying and defining the required tests, monitoring detailed testing progress and results in each test cycle and evaluating the overall quality experienced as a result of testing activities. The role typically carries the responsibility for appropriately representing the needs of stakeholders that do not have direct or regular representation on the project.

Question: What is the role of a Test Designer?

Answer: The Test Designer role is responsible for defining the test approach and ensuring its successful implementation. The role involves identifying the appropriate techniques, tools and guidelines to implement the required tests, and to give guidance on the corresponding resources requirements for the test effort.

Question: What are the roles and responsibilities of a Tester?

Answer: The Tester role is responsible for the core activities of the test effort, which involves conducting the necessary tests and logging the outcomes of that testing. The tester is responsible for identifying the most appropriate implementation approach for a given test, implementing individual tests, setting up and executing the tests, logging outcomes and verifying test execution, analyzing and recovering from execution errors.

Question: What are the skills required to be a good tester?

Answer: A tester should have knowledge of testing approaches and techniques, diagnostic and problem-solving skills, knowledge of the system or application being tested, and knowledge of networking and system architecture.

Question: What is test coverage?

Answer: Test coverage is the measurement of testing completeness, and it's based on the coverage of testing expressed by the coverage of test requirements and test cases or by the coverage of executed code.

Question: What is a test script?

Answer: The step-by-step instructions that realize a test, enabling its execution. Test Scripts may take the form of either documented textual instructions that are executed manually or computer readable instructions that enable automated test execution.

Question: What are the requirement engineering processes?

Answer: • Feasibility study • Requirements elicitation and analysis • Requirements specification • Requirements validation • Requirements management

Question: What is requirement Management?

Answer: A systematic approach to eliciting, organizing and documenting the software requirements of the system, and establishing and maintaining agreement between the customer and the project team on changes to those

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requirements. Effective requirements management includes maintaining a clear statement of the requirements, along with appropriate attributes and traceability to other requirements and other project artifacts.

Question: Why Requirement Management is important?

Answer: Requirements analysis is a colossal initial step in software development. Managing changing requirements throughout the software development life cycle is the key to developing a successful solution, one that meets users' needs and is developed on time and within budget. A crucial aspect of effectively managing requirements is communicating requirements to all team members throughout the entire life cycle. In truth, requirements management benefits all project stakeholders, end users, project managers, developers, and testers by ensuring that they are continually kept apprised of requirement status and understand the impact of changing requirements specifically, to schedules, functionality, and costs.

Question: What are the key requirement management skills?

Answer: • Analyze the Problem • Understand Stakeholder Needs • Define the System • Manage the Scope of the System • Refine the System Definition • Manage Changing Requirements

Question: What are the artifacts used to manage requirements?

Answer: • Vision • Supplementary specification • Use case specification • Glossary • Stake holder request

Question: What is requirement Management plan?

Answer: Describes the requirements artifacts, requirement types, and their respective requirements attributes, specifying the information to be collected and control mechanisms to be used for measuring, reporting, and controlling changes to the product requirements.

Question: What is Requirement Implementation?

Answer: Requirements implementation is the actual work of transforming requirements into software architectural designs, detailed designs, code, and test cases.

Question: What are requirement sources?

Answer: The term goal refers to the overall, high-level objectives of the software. Goals provide the motivation for the software, but are often vaguely formulated. Domain knowledge: The software engineer needs to acquire, or have available, knowledge about the application domain. This enables them to infer tacit knowledge that the stakeholders do not articulate, assess the trade-offs that will be necessary between conflicting requirements, and, sometimes, to act as a “user” champion. The operational environment: Requirements will be derived from the environment in which the software will be executed. These may be, for example, timing constraints in real-time software or interoperability constraints in an office environment. These must be actively sought out, because they can greatly affect software feasibility and cost, and restrict design choices. The organizational environment : Software is often required to support a business process, the selection of which may be conditioned by the structure, culture, and internal politics of the organization. The software engineer needs to be sensitive to these, since, in general, new software should not force unplanned change on the business process.

Question: What are the main types of Requirements?

Answer: • Functional Requirement • Non Functional requirement • User Requirement • System Requirement

Question: What are the different statuses of requirement?

Answer: • TBD (to be defined)- this indicates that the value of the requirement has not been defined • TBR (to be reviewed)- this indicates that a preliminary value is available but needs further review. • Defined - This indicates that a final value for the requirement has been obtained through analysis and trades. • Approved- The requirement has been reviewed and approved by the appropriate authorities. • Verified- The requirement has been verified in accordance with the verification plan. • Deleted - The requirement is no longer applicable to the program.

Question: What are FURPS?

Answer: Functionality -It includes feature sets ,capabilities, security Usability -It may include such subcategories as human factors (see Concepts: User-Centered Design), aesthetics, consistency in the user interface, online and context-sensitive help, wizards and agents, user documentation, training materials Reliability - Reliability requirements to be considered are frequency and severity of failure, recoverability, predictability, accuracy, mean time between failures (MTBF) Performance - A performance requirement imposes conditions on functional requirements. For example, for a given action, it may specify performance parameters for: speed, efficiency, availability, accuracy, throughput, response time, recovery time, resource usage Supportability -Supportability requirements may include testability, extensibility, adaptability, maintainability, compatibility, configurability, serviceability, installability, localizability (internationalization)

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Question: What is System Function Requirements?

Answer: These requirements specify a condition or capability that must be met or possessed by a system or its component(s). System functional requirements include functional and non-functional requirements. System functional requirements are developed to directly or indirectly satisfy user requirements.

Question: What is non-technical requirement?

Answer: Requirements like agreements, conditions, and/or contractual terms that affect and determine the management activities of a project.

Question: What are functional Requirements?

Answer: Functional requirements capture the intended behavior of the system. This behavior may be expressed as services, tasks or functions the system is required to perform. It specifies actions that a system must be able to perform, without taking physical constraints into consideration. Functional requirements thus specify the input and output behavior of a systems.

Question: What are non functional Requirements?

Answer: Non functional Requirements specify the qualities that the product must possess. These are things such as security, compatibility with existing systems, performance requirements, etc. In a product manufacturing example, non-functional requirements would be manufacturing requirements, or the conditions, processes, materials, and tools required to get the product from the design board to the shipping dock.

Question: What is user interface requirement?

Answer: These are driven from Functional and Use Case Requirements, are traced from them both, depending on where they were derived from. They include items such as screen layout, tab flow, mouse and keyboard use, what controls to use for what functions (e.g. radio button, pull down list), and other “ease of use” issues.

Question: What is emergent property requirement?

Answer: Some requirements represent emergent properties of software—that is, requirements which cannot be addressed by a single component, but which depend for their satisfaction on how all the software components interoperate. Emergent properties are crucially dependent on the system architecture.

Question: What is implementation requirement?

Answer: An implementation requirement specifies the coding or construction of a system like standards, implementation languages, operation environment.