Test your basic knowledge |

Software Engineering Principles And Concepts

Instructions:

Answer 50 questions in 15 minutes.
If you are not ready to take this test, you can study here.
Match each statement with the correct term.
Don't refresh. All questions and answers are randomly picked and ordered every time you load a test.

This is a study tool. The 3 wrong answers for each question are randomly chosen from answers to other questions. So, you might find at times the answers obvious, but you will see it re-enforces your understanding as you take the test each time.

1. Define product
Boundaries of services have to be explicit. Services are autonomous - standalone - do not have dependencies - Services share schema and contracts not classes and types. Platform neutral - Compatibility is policy based - policies define the contraints
Conduct reliability growth analysis - certify reliability objectives are met
Who are the customers - how are they gonna use the product - undestand the product - define possible failures - understand customer needs
The individual establish a personal performance baseline - Recognize how you do your job - Document personal processing - Gather data on where do you spend your time - Gather data on the errors you make

2. Define operational profile
Rank desired objectives in a 1 to 10 scale
Direct manipulations: Video games - Menu - Form Filling - Command languages - Natural languages
Whatever uses the service - it can be an application or another service
Identify use cases - occurrence probability - Engineer Just Right reliability

3. Formal method
Implement solutions and evaluate the results
An approach to construct and prove that a program is correct. Apply mathematical and logical techniques to analyze a program. Apply to system specification and system implementations. Not used for validation but are tied to verification.
They have to objective - unambiguous and tailored to meet the needs
Test alternatives against required objectives - Make sure the alternatives identified meet the required objectives - otherwise disregard them

4. Defect
Intelectual property - use software without credit - develop tools that help people to violate intelectual property - Privacy: credit - health - personal information - Confidentiality - Quality of work
Rank desired objectives in a 1 to 10 scale
Any flaw in the specification - design or implementation of a product.
Define the decision we are trying to make - what do we want to accomplish and what questions we will ask

5. Benefits of IPPD?
Identify required and desired objectives.
Establish how much time do we have to make de decision - what resources are available.
Boundaries of services have to be explicit. Services are autonomous - standalone - do not have dependencies - Services share schema and contracts not classes and types. Platform neutral - Compatibility is policy based - policies define the contraints
Focus on customer needs - Reduce costs - Helps to make better decisions - Reduce time - Reduce risks

6. Example of software engineering ethical scenarios
Intelectual property - use software without credit - develop tools that help people to violate intelectual property - Privacy: credit - health - personal information - Confidentiality - Quality of work
The probability at any given time that a system or capabilty performs satisfactory in a specified environment
The individual establish a personal performance baseline - Recognize how you do your job - Document personal processing - Gather data on where do you spend your time - Gather data on the errors you make
The extent that specific attributes of interest to the user are satisfied. It is defined in terms of attributes that are determined by the users.

7. Software reliability
Identify required and desired objectives.
The probability that a system or capability functions without failure for a specified time or number of natural units in a specified environment
Reviews - Test - Measurements - Analysis/Reporting - Process definition/Standards
They have to objective - unambiguous and tailored to meet the needs

8. Beginning phases of the SEI IDEAL model
Diagnosing: Characterize current state versus desired state - Recommended actions for the technology insertion Identify potential barriers: legacy code - processes - standards - contracts - Establishing:What are the different actions - develop a pla
Formulation: Define proper metrics - Collection: Collect data on the metric - Analysis: Tools to look at data - charts - graphics - Interpretation: Gain insight - Feedback: Derive recommendations and take actions
Make the decision
Initial - Identify and analyze what is the trigger to perform a particular insertion reliability - reduce cycle time - reduce cost - Context: How does this technology fits within the overall busines goals - Secure support: Management - executive - mo

9. User interface design principles
Intelectual property - use software without credit - develop tools that help people to violate intelectual property - Privacy: credit - health - personal information - Confidentiality - Quality of work
User familiarity - User diversity - Consistency throughout the interface - Minimum surprise - Recoverability - User guidance
Consider risks of selected alternatives
Whatever uses the service - it can be an application or another service

10. Define failures
Define failures intensity - allocate reliability among components
Identify alternatives
Quantitative measures of the defree to which some component possess a given attribute. Combination of measures.
Identify use cases - occurrence probability - Engineer Just Right reliability

11. Steps to perform a root cause analysis #2
Team hold a meeting to identify common root causes - common problems. Techniques such as Fishbone diagram are used in this phase to support the analysis.
Task process patterns: Detailed steps to perform a task - Stage process patterns: Depict steps in a project stage - Phase process patterns: Depicts the interactions between stages process paterns
Generate test cases from operational profile - include low probability tests
Focus on customer needs - Reduce costs - Helps to make better decisions - Reduce time - Reduce risks

12. Steps to perform a root cause analysis #4
Develop and evaluate proposed solutions to eliminte defect root causes
The probability that a system or capability functions without failure for a specified time or number of natural units in a specified environment
Do things in trial basis - pilot projects - collect information - analyze information - iterate
The approach to build distributed systems that deliver application functionality as services to end user applications or to build other services.

13. CMMI
Its targeted for organizational capabilities - Organizations depend on teams to be mature and capable.
An approach to construct and prove that a program is correct. Apply mathematical and logical techniques to analyze a program. Apply to system specification and system implementations. Not used for validation but are tied to verification.
Targeted for teams. The goal is to produce effective teams by selecting skilled teams or providing tools to improve their skills.
Identify alternatives

14. Service Oriented Architecture
Is group reasoning process applied to defect information to develop organizational understanding of the causes of a particular class of defects. A group of people analyze a group of defects to try to understand the causes of these defect.
Boundaries of services have to be explicit. Services are autonomous - standalone - do not have dependencies - Services share schema and contracts not classes and types. Platform neutral - Compatibility is policy based - policies define the contraints
Requirements - Design - Test and Maintenance
The approach to build distributed systems that deliver application functionality as services to end user applications or to build other services.

15. Steps to apply DARS #8. Calculate a value score
Who are the customers - how are they gonna use the product - undestand the product - define possible failures - understand customer needs
For each of the alternatives calculate the weight of the alternatives x value of the criteria
How do we size - resource and schedule plans - How do we estimate - What is the estimation process?
Define product - Define operational profile - Define failures - Prepare tests - Execute tests

16. How to avoid those defects
A mediator - it connects the consumer with the service provider
Conduct reliability growth analysis - certify reliability objectives are met
An application function packaged as a reusable component for use in some process - typically a business or application process.
Establish liaison between groups - better processes and better documentation - do checklists - automated checking - work product templates and reviews - Training and staff- ins - Transcription - Tools for automated checking

17. The documentation of process paterns
Similar to the documentation of a design pattern. Specify a Name - Intent (Intended use of pattern) - Type (Task - Stage - Phase) - Initial Contact (Situation where the pattern solution applies to) - Solution (How the pattern solve the intended probl
They have to objective - unambiguous and tailored to meet the needs
Whatever uses the service - it can be an application or another service
Conduct reliability growth analysis - certify reliability objectives are met

18. Where to apply formal methods
Requirements - Design - Test and Maintenance
Who are the customers - how are they gonna use the product - undestand the product - define possible failures - understand customer needs
Its targeted for organizational capabilities - Organizations depend on teams to be mature and capable.
An approach to construct and prove that a program is correct. Apply mathematical and logical techniques to analyze a program. Apply to system specification and system implementations. Not used for validation but are tied to verification.

19. Service
An application function packaged as a reusable component for use in some process - typically a business or application process.
Try to achieve products with 3.4 defects per million opportunities - Define customer requirements - meet customer needs - know what the customer wants - Measure the process - collecting defect metrics - Analyze to determine causes - Improve. Eliminat
Test alternatives against required objectives - Make sure the alternatives identified meet the required objectives - otherwise disregard them
Establish product and business goals - Assigning the roles of individuals within the team - Determine the development product strategy - Build top level plans - Develop quality plan - Conduct risk assesment - Team will prepare a management briefing -

20. Service consumer
Define the decision we are trying to make - what do we want to accomplish and what questions we will ask
Whatever uses the service - it can be an application or another service
Who are the customers - how are they gonna use the product - undestand the product - define possible failures - understand customer needs
Requirements - Design - Test and Maintenance

21. Ethic
Diagnosing: Characterize current state versus desired state - Recommended actions for the technology insertion Identify potential barriers: legacy code - processes - standards - contracts - Establishing:What are the different actions - develop a pla
The discipline dealing with what is good and bad. Moral duty and obligation. The principles of conduct governing and individual or group
Targeted for individuals. Analyse how an individual is doing his job - identify where you are spending your time - what mistakes are you making and how to improve the way you do your work. What is your process? Where do you spend your time? How good
Its targeted for organizational capabilities - Organizations depend on teams to be mature and capable.

22. Acting phase of IDEAL model
Goal: Well defined goalm a purpose - why are you doing this - Question: Based on the goal formulate questions to achieve the goal - Metric: Define metrics to answer the questions.
A registry or directory that provides a lookup so the consumer can browse the services
For each of the alternatives calculate the weight of the alternatives x value of the criteria
Do things in trial basis - pilot projects - collect information - analyze information - iterate

23. Advantages and disadvantages of formal methods
How do we size - resource and schedule plans - How do we estimate - What is the estimation process?
Rank desired objectives in a 1 to 10 scale
They eliminate contradiction - ambiguities - vagueness and incompleteness from normal language descriptions. The disasvantages are the time/effort needed - the complexity - there are interface issues - they are cumbersome.
Generate test cases from operational profile - include low probability tests

24. Middle phase of IDEAL model
Directive Approach: A leader makes the decision alone - Consultative Approach: A leader makes the decision with the advise from other people - Democratic Approach: Some key team members vote for the best decision - Consensus Approach: Everybody parti
An approach to construct and prove that a program is correct. Apply mathematical and logical techniques to analyze a program. Apply to system specification and system implementations. Not used for validation but are tied to verification.
Diagnosing: Characterize current state versus desired state - Recommended actions for the technology insertion Identify potential barriers: legacy code - processes - standards - contracts - Establishing:What are the different actions - develop a pla
Algebraic Specification: Using methods from algebra - OBJ - Low level specifications - Syntax = signature and Semantic part = axioms. Model oriented specification: The state of the system - operations over the states.

25. Some examples of formal methods implementations
Lessons learned - have we achieved the desired features? - recommendations for future technologies insertions
Is a group activity conducted at the end of a project cycle - where team members share knowledge gathered during the development of a project. They basically identify what went wrong - what worked well - how can they improve what they are doing - mak
Algebraic Specification: Using methods from algebra - OBJ - Low level specifications - Syntax = signature and Semantic part = axioms. Model oriented specification: The state of the system - operations over the states.
Describe common management techniques or organizational structures. A way to capture best practices within an organization.

26. Victor Basili GQM paradigm
Goal: Well defined goalm a purpose - why are you doing this - Question: Based on the goal formulate questions to achieve the goal - Metric: Define metrics to answer the questions.
Task process patterns: Detailed steps to perform a task - Stage process patterns: Depict steps in a project stage - Phase process patterns: Depicts the interactions between stages process paterns
Boundaries of services have to be explicit. Services are autonomous - standalone - do not have dependencies - Services share schema and contracts not classes and types. Platform neutral - Compatibility is policy based - policies define the contraints
Define the decision we are trying to make - what do we want to accomplish and what questions we will ask

27. Characteristics of good metrics
A registry or directory that provides a lookup so the consumer can browse the services
Intelectual property - use software without credit - develop tools that help people to violate intelectual property - Privacy: credit - health - personal information - Confidentiality - Quality of work
They have to objective - unambiguous and tailored to meet the needs
Evaluate the remaining alternatives against the desired objectives and set a score that will show how well this alternative satisfy our desired objectives

28. Interaction styles
Direct manipulations: Video games - Menu - Form Filling - Command languages - Natural languages
Establish product and business goals - Assigning the roles of individuals within the team - Determine the development product strategy - Build top level plans - Develop quality plan - Conduct risk assesment - Team will prepare a management briefing -
Integrated Product Team is a group of people that has complementary skills and expertise - fully empowered to represent stakeohlders - to make the appropriate decisions. A team of people that comes from different backgrounds - with different skillset
Do things in trial basis - pilot projects - collect information - analyze information - iterate

29. Learning phase of IDEAL model
Who are the customers - how are they gonna use the product - undestand the product - define possible failures - understand customer needs
Decision Analysis and Resolution Process. Is a well defined process to analyze possible decisions using formal evaluation process - it involves identifying criteria and evaluate alternatives. It helps to make decision objectively.
Learnability: How long does it take to learn the system - Speed of operation: How long does it take to complete a task - Robustness: Tolerance to errors - Recoverability: Ability to recover from errors - Adaptability: Being able to customize the inte
Lessons learned - have we achieved the desired features? - recommendations for future technologies insertions

30. Different categories of defects
Establish liaison between groups - better processes and better documentation - do checklists - automated checking - work product templates and reviews - Training and staff- ins - Transcription - Tools for automated checking
Communicative failure - Missing or incomplete information - Oversight failure - Did not consider all the variables and left out important things - Education or lack of thereof - Lack of understanding - Typo - human error
Integrated Product and Process development is a systematic approach that achieves a timely collaboration of relevant stakeholders throughout the product life cycle to better satisfy customer needs. It involves the use of cross functional teams - inte
The individual establish a personal performance baseline - Recognize how you do your job - Document personal processing - Gather data on where do you spend your time - Gather data on the errors you make

31. Organizational pattern
Implement solutions and evaluate the results
Process failure data - Tracking reliability growth - specify how fault tolerant architectures work - They rely on redundancy - They are able to recover by moving to a future state or restore to known safe state.
An approach to construct and prove that a program is correct. Apply mathematical and logical techniques to analyze a program. Apply to system specification and system implementations. Not used for validation but are tied to verification.
Describe common management techniques or organizational structures. A way to capture best practices within an organization.

32. Software quality
Identify use cases - occurrence probability - Engineer Just Right reliability
The extent that specific attributes of interest to the user are satisfied. It is defined in terms of attributes that are determined by the users.
Do things in trial basis - pilot projects - collect information - analyze information - iterate
An approach to construct and prove that a program is correct. Apply mathematical and logical techniques to analyze a program. Apply to system specification and system implementations. Not used for validation but are tied to verification.

33. Prepare tests
Targeted for teams. The goal is to produce effective teams by selecting skilled teams or providing tools to improve their skills.
The extent that specific attributes of interest to the user are satisfied. It is defined in terms of attributes that are determined by the users.
For each of the alternatives calculate the weight of the alternatives x value of the criteria
Generate test cases from operational profile - include low probability tests

34. Steps to apply DARS #7. Score alternatives against desired objectives
Implement solutions and evaluate the results
Product revision: Maintainability - testability - re- usability - Product transition: Move the product into a domain. Portability - Revisability - interoperability - Product operation: Correctness - reliability - usability - performance
Evaluate the remaining alternatives against the desired objectives and set a score that will show how well this alternative satisfy our desired objectives
Select the defects that will be analyse by the team and define the goals for the root cause analysis activities

35. Steps to apply DARS #9
Total value score - Sum of weights x values
Is group reasoning process applied to defect information to develop organizational understanding of the causes of a particular class of defects. A group of people analyze a group of defects to try to understand the causes of these defect.
Direct manipulations: Video games - Menu - Form Filling - Command languages - Natural languages
Identify use cases - occurrence probability - Engineer Just Right reliability

36. Steps to apply DARS #1. Draft decision statement
Define the decision we are trying to make - what do we want to accomplish and what questions we will ask
Describe common management techniques or organizational structures. A way to capture best practices within an organization.
User analysis: undestand what users want to do with the system. Create scenarios - use cases - put the user in different situations - interview and talk to people - observe - Prorotyping: paper or executable prototypes - Evaluation - Using prototypes
Whatever uses the service - it can be an application or another service

37. PSP0
Integrated Product Team is a group of people that has complementary skills and expertise - fully empowered to represent stakeohlders - to make the appropriate decisions. A team of people that comes from different backgrounds - with different skillset
Its targeted for organizational capabilities - Organizations depend on teams to be mature and capable.
The individual establish a personal performance baseline - Recognize how you do your job - Document personal processing - Gather data on where do you spend your time - Gather data on the errors you make
The extent that specific attributes of interest to the user are satisfied. It is defined in terms of attributes that are determined by the users.

38. Role of a software quality assurance group
Conduct reliability growth analysis - certify reliability objectives are met
Lessons learned - have we achieved the desired features? - recommendations for future technologies insertions
To prepare a software quality assurance plan - Participate in the development of the project process descriptions and definitions - Review software activities to verify compliance with the processes - Work product audits to verify compliance with pro
Communicative failure - Missing or incomplete information - Oversight failure - Did not consider all the variables and left out important things - Education or lack of thereof - Lack of understanding - Typo - human error

39. Steps to apply DARS #3. Classify objectives
Identify required and desired objectives.
Focus on customer needs - Reduce costs - Helps to make better decisions - Reduce time - Reduce risks
Formulation: Define proper metrics - Collection: Collect data on the metric - Analysis: Tools to look at data - charts - graphics - Interpretation: Gain insight - Feedback: Derive recommendations and take actions
Implement solutions and evaluate the results

40. PSP2
The extent that specific attributes of interest to the user are satisfied. It is defined in terms of attributes that are determined by the users.
Rank desired objectives in a 1 to 10 scale
Intelectual property - use software without credit - develop tools that help people to violate intelectual property - Privacy: credit - health - personal information - Confidentiality - Quality of work
What kind of defects do I make in my own work - How can I make fewer mistakes - How can I identify more defects that I overlooked in the past

41. Root cause analysis...
Team members establish common goals and define roles - Team: develops strategy - defines a customize process - participates in producing the plan and everyone understands the role - negotiates with management on the plan and resources - members fo wo
Identify use cases - occurrence probability - Engineer Just Right reliability
Is group reasoning process applied to defect information to develop organizational understanding of the causes of a particular class of defects. A group of people analyze a group of defects to try to understand the causes of these defect.
The probability that a system or capability functions without failure for a specified time or number of natural units in a specified environment

42. Steps to perform a root cause analysis #1
Describe common management techniques or organizational structures. A way to capture best practices within an organization.
A registry or directory that provides a lookup so the consumer can browse the services
Select the defects that will be analyse by the team and define the goals for the root cause analysis activities
Strategies that software professionals use to solve recurring problems. Consist of a collection of general techniques - actions and tasks being use to solve recurring problems in an organization.

43. Benefits of project retrospectives
It help individuals to perform better - it helps to improve processes.
Evaluate the remaining alternatives against the desired objectives and set a score that will show how well this alternative satisfy our desired objectives
User analysis: undestand what users want to do with the system. Create scenarios - use cases - put the user in different situations - interview and talk to people - observe - Prorotyping: paper or executable prototypes - Evaluation - Using prototypes
Establish how much time do we have to make de decision - what resources are available.

44. Other approaches to make decisions exist besides DARS
The probability that a system or capability functions without failure for a specified time or number of natural units in a specified environment
Directive Approach: A leader makes the decision alone - Consultative Approach: A leader makes the decision with the advise from other people - Democratic Approach: Some key team members vote for the best decision - Consensus Approach: Everybody parti
Boundaries of services have to be explicit. Services are autonomous - standalone - do not have dependencies - Services share schema and contracts not classes and types. Platform neutral - Compatibility is policy based - policies define the contraints
Do things in trial basis - pilot projects - collect information - analyze information - iterate

45. Steps to apply DARS #2. Establish decision objectives
Is group reasoning process applied to defect information to develop organizational understanding of the causes of a particular class of defects. A group of people analyze a group of defects to try to understand the causes of these defect.
Establish how much time do we have to make de decision - what resources are available.
A registry or directory that provides a lookup so the consumer can browse the services
Team members establish common goals and define roles - Team: develops strategy - defines a customize process - participates in producing the plan and everyone understands the role - negotiates with management on the plan and resources - members fo wo

46. Steps to apply DARS #11
Make the decision
Intelectual property - use software without credit - develop tools that help people to violate intelectual property - Privacy: credit - health - personal information - Confidentiality - Quality of work
Initial - Identify and analyze what is the trigger to perform a particular insertion reliability - reduce cycle time - reduce cost - Context: How does this technology fits within the overall busines goals - Secure support: Management - executive - mo
Consider risks of selected alternatives

47. IPT
Integrated Product Team is a group of people that has complementary skills and expertise - fully empowered to represent stakeohlders - to make the appropriate decisions. A team of people that comes from different backgrounds - with different skillset
Task process patterns: Detailed steps to perform a task - Stage process patterns: Depict steps in a project stage - Phase process patterns: Depicts the interactions between stages process paterns
Team members establish common goals and define roles - Team: develops strategy - defines a customize process - participates in producing the plan and everyone understands the role - negotiates with management on the plan and resources - members fo wo
Its targeted for organizational capabilities - Organizations depend on teams to be mature and capable.

48. Antipattern
Diagnosing: Characterize current state versus desired state - Recommended actions for the technology insertion Identify potential barriers: legacy code - processes - standards - contracts - Establishing:What are the different actions - develop a pla
Do things in trial basis - pilot projects - collect information - analyze information - iterate
Rank desired objectives in a 1 to 10 scale
Things that should no be doing - comes from lessons learned

49. Steps to apply DARS #5
Identify alternatives
Targeted for teams. The goal is to produce effective teams by selecting skilled teams or providing tools to improve their skills.
Try to achieve products with 3.4 defects per million opportunities - Define customer requirements - meet customer needs - know what the customer wants - Measure the process - collecting defect metrics - Analyze to determine causes - Improve. Eliminat
Initial - Identify and analyze what is the trigger to perform a particular insertion reliability - reduce cycle time - reduce cost - Context: How does this technology fits within the overall busines goals - Secure support: Management - executive - mo

50. Goals for root cause analysis...
Process failure data - Tracking reliability growth - specify how fault tolerant architectures work - They rely on redundancy - They are able to recover by moving to a future state or restore to known safe state.
Reduce repair or re work cause - eliminate high priority problems and reduce error type
They eliminate contradiction - ambiguities - vagueness and incompleteness from normal language descriptions. The disasvantages are the time/effort needed - the complexity - there are interface issues - they are cumbersome.
Any flaw in the specification - design or implementation of a product.