1. What is 'Software Quality Assurance'?
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.
2. What is 'Software Testing'?
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.
3. Does every software project need testers?
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.
4. What is Regression testing?
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.
5. Why does software have bugs?
Some of the
reasons are:
a. Miss communication or no communication.
b. Programming errors
c. Changing requirements
d. Time pressures
6. How can new Software QA processes be introduced
in an existing Organization?
It depends on
the size of the organization and the risks involved.
a. For small groups or projects, a more ad-hoc process may be appropriate, depending
on the type of customers and projects.
b. By incremental self-managed team approaches.
7. What is
verification? Validation?
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. Validation
typically involves actual testing and takes place after verifications are
completed.
8. What is a 'walkthrough'? What's an 'inspection'?
A
'walkthrough' is an informal meeting for evaluation or informational purposes.
Little or no preparation is usually required. 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.
9. What kinds of testing should be considered?
Some of the
basic kinds of testing involve: Black box testing, White box testing,
Integration testing, Functional testing, smoke testing, Acceptance testing,
Load testing, Performance testing, User acceptance testing.
10. What are 5 common problems in the software
development process?
a. Poor
requirements
b. Unrealistic Schedule
c. Inadequate testing
d. Changing requirements
e. Miscommunication
11.What are 5 common solutions to software
development problems?
a. Solid
requirements
b. Realistic Schedule
c. Adequate testing
d. Clarity of requirements
e. Good communication among the Project team
12. What is software 'quality'?
Quality
software is reasonably bug-free, delivered on time and within budget, meets
requirements and/or expectations, and is maintainable
13. What are some recent major computer system
failures caused by software bugs?
Trading on a
major Asian stock exchange was brought to a halt in November of 2005,
reportedly due to an error in a system software upgrade. A May 2005 newspaper
article reported that a major hybrid car manufacturer had to install a software
fix on 20,000 vehicles due to problems with invalid engine warning lights and
occasional stalling. Media reports in January of 2005 detailed severe problems
with a $170 million high-profile U.S. government IT systems project. Software
testing was one of the five major problem areas according to a report of the
commission reviewing the project.
14. What is 'good code'? What is 'good
design'?
'Good code'
is code that works, is bug free, and is readable and maintainable. 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.
15. What is SEI? CMM? CMMI? ISO? Will it help?
These are all
standards that determine effectiveness in delivering quality software. It helps
organizations to identify best practices useful in helping them increase the
maturity of their processes.
16. What steps are needed to develop and run
software tests?
a. Obtain
requirements, functional design, and internal design specifications and other
necessary documents
b. Obtain budget and schedule requirements.
c. Determine Project context.
d. Identify risks.
e. Determine testing approaches, methods, test environment, test data.
f. Set Schedules, testing documents.
g. Perform tests.
h. Perform reviews and evaluations
i. Maintain and update documents
17. What's a 'test plan'? What's a 'test case'?
A software
project test plan is a document that describes the objectives, scope, approach,
and focus of a software testing effort. A test case is a document that
describes an input, action, or event and an expected response, to determine if
a feature of an application is working correctly.
18. What should be done after a bug is found?
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
19. Will automated testing tools make testing
easier?
It depends on
the Project size. 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.
20. What's
the best way to choose a test automation tool?
Some of the points that can be noted before choosing a tool would be:
a. Analyze the non-automated testing situation to determine the testing
activity that is being performed.
b. Testing procedures that are time consuming and repetition.
c. Cost/Budget of tool, Training and implementation factors.
d. Evaluation of the chosen tool to explore the benefits.
21. How
can it be determined if a test environment is appropriate?
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.
22. What's
the best approach to software test estimation?
The 'best approach' is highly dependent on the particular organization
and project and the experience of the personnel involvedSome of the following
approaches to be considered are:
a. Implicit Risk Context Approach
b. Metrics-Based Approach
c. Test Work Breakdown Approach
d. Iterative Approach
e. Percentage-of-Development Approach
23. What
if the software is so buggy it can't really be tested at all?
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.
24. How can it be known when to stop testing?
Common
factors in deciding when to stop are:
a. Deadlines (release deadlines, testing deadlines, etc.)
b. Test cases completed with certain percentage passed
c. Test budget depleted
d. Coverage of code/functionality/requirements reaches a specified point
e. Bug rate falls below a certain level
f. Beta or alpha testing period ends
25. What if there isn't enough time for thorough
testing?
a. Use risk
analysis to determine where testing should be focused.
b. Determine the important functionality to be tested.
c. Determine the high-risk aspects of the project.
d. Prioritize the kinds of testing that need to be performed.
e. Determine the tests that will have the best high-risk-coverage to
time-required ratio.
26. What if the project isn't big enough to justify
extensive testing?
Consider the
impact of project errors, not the size of the project. The tester might then do
ad-hoc testing, or write up a limited test plan based on the risk analysis.
27. How does a client/server environment affect
testing?
Client/server applications can be quite complex due to the multiple
dependencies among clients, data communications, hardware, and servers,
especially in multi-tier systems. Load/stress/performance testing may be useful
in determining client/server application limitations and capabilities.
28. How
can World Wide Web sites be tested?
Some of the considerations might include:
a. Testing the expected loads on the server
b. Performance expected on the client side
c. Testing the required securities to be implemented and verified.
d. Testing the HTML specification, external and internal links
e. cgi programs, applets, javascripts, ActiveX components, etc. to be
maintained, tracked, controlled
29. How is
testing affected by object-oriented designs?
Well-engineered object-oriented design can make it easier to trace from
code to internal design to functional design to requirements. If the
application was well designed this can simplify test design.
30. What
is Extreme Programming and what's it got to do with testing?
Extreme Programming (XP) is a software development approach for small
teams on risk-prone projects with unstable requirements. For testing ('extreme
testing', programmers are expected to write unit and functional test code first
- before writing the application code. Customers are expected to be an integral
part of the project team and to help develop scenarios for acceptance/black box
testing.
31. What
makes a good Software Test engineer?
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.
32. What
makes a good Software QA engineer?
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
33. What's
the role of documentation in QA?
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.
34. What
is a test strategy? What is the purpose of a test strategy?
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.
35. What
information does a test strategy captures?
It captures
an explanation of the general approach that will be used and the specific
types, techniques, styles of testing
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
37. What is Unit testing?
It is
implemented against the smallest testable element (units) of the software, and
involves testing the internal structure such as logic and dataflow, and the
unit's function and observable behaviors
38. How can the test results be used in testing?
Test Results
are used to record the detailed findings of the test effort and to subsequently
calculate the different key measures of testing
39. What is Developer testing?
Developer
testing denotes the aspects of test design and implementation most appropriate
for the team of developers to undertake.
40. What is independent testing?
Independent
testing denotes the test design and implementation most appropriately performed
by someone who is independent from the team of developers.
41. What is Integration testing?
Integration
testing is performed to ensure that the components in the implementation model
operate properly when combined to execute a use case
42. What is System testing?
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.
43. What is Acceptance testing?
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
44. What is the role of a Test Manager?
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
45. What is the role of a Test Analyst?
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.
46. What is the role of a Test Designer?
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
47. What are the roles and responsibilities of a
Tester?
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.
48. What are the skills required to be a good
tester?
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
49. What is test coverage?
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.
50. What is a test script?
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.
