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. Prepare tests
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 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 -
Describe common management techniques or organizational structures. A way to capture best practices within an organization.
Generate test cases from operational profile - include low probability tests

2. Service provider
Direct manipulations: Video games - Menu - Form Filling - Command languages - Natural languages
The one who implements the service - it can be a network addressable entity - it needs to be able to accept and execute requests from consumer - it needs to publish a service description in a service registry that contains the collection of service d
Lessons learned - have we achieved the desired features? - recommendations for future technologies insertions
Total value score - Sum of weights x values

3. Middle phase of IDEAL model
Reuse cycle time - costs - Interoperability - Scalabilty - Flexibility/Maintainability
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
Rank desired objectives in a 1 to 10 scale
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

4. Execute tests
Reuse cycle time - costs - Interoperability - Scalabilty - Flexibility/Maintainability
Conduct reliability growth analysis - certify reliability objectives are met
Its targeted for organizational capabilities - Organizations depend on teams to be mature and capable.
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

5. Acting phase of IDEAL model
Direct manipulations: Video games - Menu - Form Filling - Command languages - Natural languages
Generate test cases from operational profile - include low probability tests
Do things in trial basis - pilot projects - collect information - analyze information - iterate
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

6. Victor Basili GQM paradigm
Define product - Define operational profile - Define failures - Prepare tests - Execute tests
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.
Conduct reliability growth analysis - certify reliability objectives are met
Total value score - Sum of weights x values

7. Steps to apply DARS #9
Describe common management techniques or organizational structures. A way to capture best practices within an organization.
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
Total value score - Sum of weights x values
Lessons learned - have we achieved the desired features? - recommendations for future technologies insertions

8. User interface design principles
Reduce repair or re work cause - eliminate high priority problems and reduce error type
User familiarity - User diversity - Consistency throughout the interface - Minimum surprise - Recoverability - User guidance
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
Focus on customer needs - Reduce costs - Helps to make better decisions - Reduce time - Reduce risks

9. Formal method
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.
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
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 -
Rank desired objectives in a 1 to 10 scale

10. Service locator
Define product - Define operational profile - Define failures - Prepare tests - Execute tests
A registry or directory that provides a lookup so the consumer can browse the services
Test alternatives against required objectives - Make sure the alternatives identified meet the required objectives - otherwise disregard them
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

11. Guiding test
Consider risks of selected alternatives
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.
Make the decision
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.

12. Explain usability attributes
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
From the common root causes identified in the previous meeting - the team select the ones that they will be addressing. The root causes selected will be usually the ones that cause a lot of the defects.
The one who implements the service - it can be a network addressable entity - it needs to be able to accept and execute requests from consumer - it needs to publish a service description in a service registry that contains the collection of service d
Direct manipulations: Video games - Menu - Form Filling - Command languages - Natural languages

13. PSP
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
Reviews - Test - Measurements - Analysis/Reporting - Process definition/Standards
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.
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

14. Software availability
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.
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
Product revision: Maintainability - testability - re- usability - Product transition: Move the product into a domain. Portability - Revisability - interoperability - Product operation: Correctness - reliability - usability - performance
The probability at any given time that a system or capabilty performs satisfactory in a specified environment

15. Other approaches to make decisions exist besides DARS
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
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
Identify required and desired objectives.
A mediator - it connects the consumer with the service provider

16. Metric
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
Reuse cycle time - costs - Interoperability - Scalabilty - Flexibility/Maintainability
Quantitative measures of the defree to which some component possess a given attribute. Combination of measures.
User familiarity - User diversity - Consistency throughout the interface - Minimum surprise - Recoverability - User guidance

17. Steps to apply DARS #3. Classify objectives
Identify required and desired objectives.
Do things in trial basis - pilot projects - collect information - analyze information - iterate
For each of the alternatives calculate the weight of the alternatives x value of the criteria
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

18. Steps to perform a root cause analysis #3
Reduce repair or re work cause - eliminate high priority problems and reduce error type
Lessons learned - have we achieved the desired features? - recommendations for future technologies insertions
From the common root causes identified in the previous meeting - the team select the ones that they will be addressing. The root causes selected will be usually the ones that cause a lot of the defects.
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

19. Learning phase of IDEAL model
Lessons learned - have we achieved the desired features? - recommendations for future technologies insertions
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.
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.
Product revision: Maintainability - testability - re- usability - Product transition: Move the product into a domain. Portability - Revisability - interoperability - Product operation: Correctness - reliability - usability - performance

20. Root cause analysis...
How to integrate - to perform effectively on a team - How can you become a better team player
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.
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
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

21. The steps to launch a TSP Team
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 -
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.
Direct manipulations: Video games - Menu - Form Filling - Command languages - Natural languages
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

22. The characteristics of a service
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
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
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.
Describe common management techniques or organizational structures. A way to capture best practices within an organization.

23. Steps to apply DARS #4. Value the desired objectives
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
Things that should no be doing - comes from lessons learned
Rank desired objectives in a 1 to 10 scale
Make the decision

24. Define operational profile
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.
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
Identify use cases - occurrence probability - Engineer Just Right reliability
The one who implements the service - it can be a network addressable entity - it needs to be able to accept and execute requests from consumer - it needs to publish a service description in a service registry that contains the collection of service d

25. Steps to apply DARS #11
An application function packaged as a reusable component for use in some process - typically a business or application process.
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
Evaluate the remaining alternatives against the desired objectives and set a score that will show how well this alternative satisfy our desired objectives
Make the decision

26. Benefits of SOA
Reviews - Test - Measurements - Analysis/Reporting - Process definition/Standards
From the common root causes identified in the previous meeting - the team select the ones that they will be addressing. The root causes selected will be usually the ones that cause a lot of the defects.
Evaluate the remaining alternatives against the desired objectives and set a score that will show how well this alternative satisfy our desired objectives
Reuse cycle time - costs - Interoperability - Scalabilty - Flexibility/Maintainability

27. The Six Sigma for software engineering 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
Reduce repair or re work cause - eliminate high priority problems and reduce error type
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
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

28. TSP
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.
How do we size - resource and schedule plans - How do we estimate - What is the estimation process?
Direct manipulations: Video games - Menu - Form Filling - Command languages - Natural languages

29. Some examples of formal methods implementations
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.
Focus on customer needs - Reduce costs - Helps to make better decisions - Reduce time - Reduce risks
Identify alternatives
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.

30. Interaction styles
Direct manipulations: Video games - Menu - Form Filling - Command languages - Natural languages
How do we size - resource and schedule plans - How do we estimate - What is the estimation process?
Define the decision we are trying to make - what do we want to accomplish and what questions we will ask
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.

31. Service Oriented Architecture
Establish how much time do we have to make de decision - what resources are available.
Identify required and desired objectives.
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
The approach to build distributed systems that deliver application functionality as services to end user applications or to build other services.

32. PSP3
Do things in trial basis - pilot projects - collect information - analyze information - iterate
The one who implements the service - it can be a network addressable entity - it needs to be able to accept and execute requests from consumer - it needs to publish a service description in a service registry that contains the collection of service d
Identify alternatives
How to integrate - to perform effectively on a team - How can you become a better team player

33. Steps to apply DARS #1. Draft decision statement
Intelectual property - use software without credit - develop tools that help people to violate intelectual property - Privacy: credit - health - personal information - Confidentiality - Quality of work
Define the decision we are trying to make - what do we want to accomplish and what questions we will ask
Test alternatives against required objectives - Make sure the alternatives identified meet the required objectives - otherwise disregard them
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.

34. How OCL (Object Constraint Language) is used in the context of the uml
It is a semi formal language - partly mathematical. UML cannot describe constraints on model objects. Addresses invariants which are expressions holding true. Defines preconditions that must be true at the start of a method execution and post conditi
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.
Whatever uses the service - it can be an application or another service
For each of the alternatives calculate the weight of the alternatives x value of the criteria

35. IPPD
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
Reuse cycle time - costs - Interoperability - Scalabilty - Flexibility/Maintainability
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
Define failures intensity - allocate reliability among components

36. Service
An application function packaged as a reusable component for use in some process - typically a business or application process.
Generate test cases from operational profile - include low probability tests
A registry or directory that provides a lookup so the consumer can browse the services
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.

37. PSP1
How do we size - resource and schedule plans - How do we estimate - What is the estimation process?
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
The discipline dealing with what is good and bad. Moral duty and obligation. The principles of conduct governing and individual or group
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.

38. Steps to apply DARS #10
Consider risks of selected alternatives
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
Identify alternatives
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

39. Retrospective - lessons learned or project post- mortem
Consider risks of selected alternatives
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
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
Describe common management techniques or organizational structures. A way to capture best practices within an organization.

40. Steps to apply DARS #2. Establish decision objectives
Select the defects that will be analyse by the team and define the goals for the root cause analysis activities
Establish how much time do we have to make de decision - what resources are available.
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
The approach to build distributed systems that deliver application functionality as services to end user applications or to build other services.

41. Service broker
User familiarity - User diversity - Consistency throughout the interface - Minimum surprise - Recoverability - User guidance
Consider risks of selected alternatives
Establish how much time do we have to make de decision - what resources are available.
A mediator - it connects the consumer with the service provider

42. Define product
Consider risks of selected alternatives
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
For each of the alternatives calculate the weight of the alternatives x value of the criteria
Who are the customers - how are they gonna use the product - undestand the product - define possible failures - understand customer needs

43. CMMI
Make the decision
From the common root causes identified in the previous meeting - the team select the ones that they will be addressing. The root causes selected will be usually the ones that cause a lot of the defects.
Its targeted for organizational capabilities - Organizations depend on teams to be mature and capable.
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

44. Antipattern
Things that should no be doing - comes from lessons learned
It is a semi formal language - partly mathematical. UML cannot describe constraints on model objects. Addresses invariants which are expressions holding true. Defines preconditions that must be true at the start of a method execution and post conditi
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.
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

45. Process pattern
Identify alternatives
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
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
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.

46. PSP0
Lessons learned - have we achieved the desired features? - recommendations for future technologies insertions
Any flaw in the specification - design or implementation of a product.
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

47. The measurement process
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.
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
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

48. Benefits of project retrospectives
It is a semi formal language - partly mathematical. UML cannot describe constraints on model objects. Addresses invariants which are expressions holding true. Defines preconditions that must be true at the start of a method execution and post conditi
It help individuals to perform better - it helps to improve processes.
User familiarity - User diversity - Consistency throughout the interface - Minimum surprise - Recoverability - User guidance
Whatever uses the service - it can be an application or another service

49. Characteristics of good metrics
They have to objective - unambiguous and tailored to meet the needs
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
The probability at any given time that a system or capabilty performs satisfactory in a specified environment
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.

50. Steps to apply DARS #8. Calculate a value score
The approach to build distributed systems that deliver application functionality as services to end user applications or to build other services.
For each of the alternatives calculate the weight of the alternatives x value of the criteria
Define failures intensity - allocate reliability among components
Make the decision