CRICOS Provider No. 00103D ITECH7409 Assig 1 Sem XXXXXXXXXXPage 1 of 5
ITECH XXXXXXXXXXSoftware Testing
Assignment 1 Individual
Research on Software Testing and Standards
Overview
According to Standards Australia:
“Standards are published documents setting out specifications and procedures
designed to ensure products, services and systems are safe, reliable and
consistently perform the way they were intended to. They establish a common
language which defines quality and safety criteria.”
There are several standards, international and national, that relate specifically to software
testing. Standards formalize industry best practice and they are agreed upon by
professionals in the industry in which the standards apply to.
This assignment is an investigation into those standards.
The purpose of the assignment is to help you to:-
improve your research and comprehension skills
develop a good understanding of professional industry standards for software testing
appreciate the value of various processes and methods used in industry to test and evaluate
software systems
Timelines and Expectations
Marks and Percentage Value of Task: 100 marks 10%
Due: Thursday, May 2, 2019 @16:00 (Week 7)
Minimum time expectation: 10 hours
Learning Outcomes Assessed
K1. Critically evaluate software requirements as inputs toward testing of the final
solution;
K2. Analyse and critically evaluate appropriate tools and techniques to support the
testing process;
K3. Develop a good understanding of selecting and applying measures and models
used for testing that are compliant with the appropriate professional industry
standards such as the ACS and IEEE;
S1. Analyse and critically evaluate software requirements and proposed solutions;
S2. Apply complex decision making to select appropriate testing techniques;
S3. Write professional level management, planning, quality assurance and testing
documentation for a software system;
CRICOS Provider No. 00103D ITECH7409 Assig 1 Sem XXXXXXXXXXPage 2 of 5
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S4. Apply effective testing techniques to software systems of varying scales and test
levels
A1. Develop and maintain plans for scheduling quality assurance tasks including
software testing;
Assessment Details
You will need to:
locate a research paper related to software testing that refers to at least one
standard.
research, comprehend and analyse each document (both the paper and the chosen
standard) to find relevant details to answer a set of questions, and
prepare a written summary report of findings
As a suggestion, commence your search for a research paper at the Federation University
website. There is a QuickSearch link on the li
ary home page:
CRICOS Provider No. 00103D ITECH7409 Assig 1 Sem XXXXXXXXXXPage 3 of 5
There is also a listing of Databases A-Z (http:
libguides.federation.edu.au/az.php ) which has a
link for Australian Standards Online.
Requirements:
Questions for the standard:
What is the standard name?
Who holds the copyright for the standard?
Amongst the acknowledged contributors to the document, which universities were involved
(if any)?
What is the scope or intent of the standard?
What are key terms and understandings needed for the standard to be understood and
applied?
In your own words, what does application of the standard result in? Or, in other words, what
does the standard do?
Finally, what specific relevance to software testing is the standard?
Discuss the paper and how it relates to the standard. For example: does the paper suggest
how to improve the standard? Does the paper highlight issues in applying the standard?
Attached is a sample paper (Wichmann and Cox 1992) which refers to the ANSI1/IEEE2
Standard 8293 and ANSI/IEEE Standard 1008. Although this paper is somewhat outdated, it’s
serves to illustrate the task for this assignment.
Prepare a report of no more than 1,500 words answering all questions. The report should have
the following structure.
an introduction to standards and a
ief description of the research paper and chosen standard
responses to questions for the standard
listing and a discussion of commonalities and differences between the two documents
a conclusion summarizing the report findings
1 American National Standards Institute
2 Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers
3 Cu
ent versions of both these standards are available online at FedUni li
ary
http:
libguides.federation.edu.au/az.php
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Marking Criteria/Ru
ic
Student ID: Student name:
Assessment component Mark
1. Introduction
20
2. Responses to questions
20
3. Listing and discussion of commonalities and differences between the research paper
and the chosen standard
20
4. Conclusion
20
5. Spelling, grammar and report presentation
20
Total
100
Final /10
Comments
Submission
Your assignment should be completed according to the guides for your assessments:
https:
federation.edu.au/li
ary/student-resources/guides-to-your-assessments
You are required to provide documentation, contained in an appropriate file, which includes a front
page indicating:
the title of the assignment
the course ID and course name,
student name and student ID
a statement of what has been completed
https:
federation.edu.au/li
ary/student-resources/guides-to-your-assessments
CRICOS Provider No. 00103D ITECH7409 Assig 1 Sem XXXXXXXXXXPage 5 of 5
acknowledgement of the names of all people (including other students and people
outside of the university) who have assisted you and details on what parts of the
assignment that they have assisted you with
a list of references used (APA style)
Using the link provided in Moodle, please upload your report as a Word file. Name your Word file in
the following manner:
GivenName_FAMILY-NAME>_
.docx
e.g. Aravind_ADIGA_ XXXXXXXXXXdocx
Also, upload a copy of the standard used by the research paper
Feedback
Assessment marks will be made available in fdlMarks, feedback to individual students will be
provided via Moodle or as direct feedback during your tutorial class
Plagiarism:
Plagiarism is the presentation of the expressed thought or work of another person as though it is
one's own without properly acknowledging that person. You must not allow other students to copy
your work and must take care to safeguard against this happening. More information about the
plagiarism policy and procedure for the university can be found at:
http:
federation.edu.au/students/learning-and-study/online-help-with/plagiarism
Your support material must be compiled from reliable sources such as the academic resources in
Federation University li
ary which might include, but not limited to: the main li
ary collection, li
ary
databases and the BONUS+ collection as well as any reputable online resources (you should confirm
this with your tutor).
Federation University General Guide to Referencing:
The University has published a style guide to help students co
ectly reference and cite information
they use in assignments. A copy of the University’s citation guides can be found on the university’s
web site. It is imperative that students cite all sources of information. The General Guide to
Referencing can be purchased from the University bookshop or accessed online at:
https:
federation.edu.au/li
ary/guides
eferencing
References
Wichmann, B. A. and M. G. Cox (1992). "Problems and strategies for software component testing standards."
Software Testing, Verification and Reliability 2(4): XXXXXXXXXX.
http:
federation.edu.au/students/learning-and-study/online-help-with/plagiarism
https:
federation.edu.au/li
ary/guides
eferencing
Problems and strategies for software component testing standards
SOFTWARE TESTING, VERIFICATION AND RELIABILITY, VOL. 2, XXXXXXXXXX)
Problems and Strategies for Software
Component Testing Standards
B. A. WICHMANN AND M. G. COX
National Physical Laboratory, Teddington, Middlesex, W l l OL W, U. K.
SUMMARY
What does it mean to say that an item of software has been tested? Unfortunately, cu
ently accepted
standards are inadequate to give the confidence the user needs and the meaningful objective for the
supplier. This paper assesses the cu
ently available standards, mainly in the component testing area
and advocates that the British Computer Society proto-standard should be taken as a basis for a
formal standard. The paper is intended for those concerned with software quality.
KEY WORDS Component testing Quality assurance Standards
1. PROBLEM STATEMENT
This paper considers the issue of software testing in the na
ow sense, i.e. the execution
of the code of a system to attempt to find e
ors. The objective is to quantify or assess
the quality of the software under test, particularly in an objective manner which can
therefore be agreed by both a supplier and customer.
The reliance placed upon dynamic testing varies significantly from sector to sector. It
appears from cu
ent drafts that the revision of the avionics standard for safety-critical
software depends almost exclusively on testing (RCTA, 1993), while the U.K. Interim
Defence Standard (MOD, 1991) places much greater emphasis on static analysis.
Dynamic testing has been widely used within industry since the advent of the first
computers. However, the contribution that testing makes to software quality in practice
is hard to judge. Everybody producing software will claim that it is ‘tested’, and therefore
one must look beyond such superficial claims.
The classic work on testing is that of Myers XXXXXXXXXXIn the author’s view, little progress
has been made in the practical state of the art since the publication of Myers’ book. For
more recent summaries of the art of testing (see Ince, 1991 and White, XXXXXXXXXXThis paper
is an attempt to revisit the issues to see if some advance can be made; preferably so that
those who undertake testing can claim some measurable quality objective.
Nomenclature in this topic is not uniform and it is unfortunate that an Alvey document
covering this point has not been formally published (Alvey, XXXXXXXXXXHowever, this gap
will be filled by a BCS proto-standard (Graham, 1990), assuming this is published.
Although it is known that the absence of bugs can never be demonstrated by testing,
it is equally known that effective software testing