Recent questions tagged software-engineering

Description : Software project planning entails what activities? What are the difficulties faced in measuring the Software Costs?

Last Answer : Ans. Software project planning entails the following activities: Estimation: o -Effort, cost, resource, and project duration Project scheduling: Staff organization: o -staffing ... actual specifications of the system hence cost estimations based on uncertain information cannot be accurate.

Description : Draw the flow chart of Risk Management-Activity and explain various Software risks.

Last Answer : Ans RISK is a problem that could cause some loss or threatens the success of the project, but which has not happened yet. Typical Software Risks:- 1. Dependencies: -Many ... Inadequate application domain experience. New technologies. Ineffective, poorly documented, or neglected processes.

Description : What specific languages can be used in SRS? What are the advantages of using these specific languages of SRS?

Last Answer : Ans. Requirement specification necessitates the use of some specification language. The language should support the desired qualities of the SRS- modifiability, understandability, unambiguous, and so forth. ... formally specify the behavior of a system on different combination of input or settings.

Description : What is Data Dictionary? Explain each component?

Last Answer : Ans Data dictionary is a storehouse of data giving information about data. It is a list of terms and their definition for all data items and data files of a system. A data dictionary contains ... Data Stores- data Flows are data structures in motion whereas data stores are data structures at rest.

Description : Explain incremental model? Define core product and detailed plan.

Last Answer : Ans. The incremental model is proposed by D.L PARNAS. It is basically implemented by combining elements of linear sequential model and iterative prototyping model. Incremental development refer to the process ... . Risk of failure of product is decreased as user start using the product early.

Description : Explain various types of static and dynamic testing tools.

Last Answer : Ans. Static testing tools: 1. Static analysers A static analyser operates from a pre-computed database of descriptive information derived from the source text of the program. The idea of a static ... for documenting that the tests have been done and that no defects were found during the process.

Description : How is cyclomatic complexity useful in program test? What is sequence of testing? What is testability?

Last Answer : Ans. Cyclomatic complexity measures the amount of decision logic in a single software module. It is used for two related purposes in the structured testing methodology. First, it gives the number of ... a lack of testability may hinder testing parts of the software or software requirements at all.

Description : Design black box test suits for a function that checks whether a character or string upto ten characters in a palindrome?

Last Answer : Ans Following may be the test cases: - Try with Even number of characters (MALAYALAM) - Try with Odd number of characters (ADDA) - Try with maximum length of string The following are negative test ... come for the following) - Try with empty string - Try with numbers - Try with special characters

Description : Compare and contrast reliability and availability?

Last Answer : Ans. Reliability:The probability of failure-free system operation over a specified time in a given environment for a given purpose is called reliability Availability:The probability that a system, at ... damage data, low reliability may not be a problem. Availability takes repair time into account.

Description : Explain various Object Oriented concepts used in Software Engineering. Give an example.

Last Answer : Ans .Various concepts of Object Oriented concepts used in Software Engineering: Object:- An object is something which is capable of being seen, touched or sensed. Each object has certain distinctions ... . A message can be sent between two objects only if they have an association between them.

Description : Define cohesion & coupling? Give suitable examples.

Last Answer : Ans Coupling:Coupling refers to the strength of the relationship between modules in a system. Coupling represents how strongly different modules are interconnected with each other. Cohesion: Cohesion ... Cohesion represents how strongly the internal elements of a module are bound to each other.

Description : What is Data Binding?

Last Answer : Ans.The matrix that attempts to capture the module-level concept of coupling is data binding. Data binding are a measure that captures the data interaction across portions of a software system. In ... words, data binding try to specify how strongly coupled different modules in a software system are.

Description : What is function point? Explain its importance. What is function-oriented metrics?

Last Answer : Ans. Function point measures the functionality from the user point of view, that is, on the basis of what the user request and receives in return. Therefore, it deals with ... empirical relationship based on countable measures of software's information domain and assessments of software complexity.

Description : Spiral model is a realistic approach to the development of large-scale systems & software. Justify & explain the model?

Last Answer : Ans. There are several advantages of Spiral model that makes it a realistic approach to development of large-scale systems and software, viz: 1) The spiral model promotes quality assurance ... , which can help in identifying and resolving potential problems or errors in the software development.

Description : What is CMM? Describe its levels & compare it with ISO 9001?

Last Answer : Ans. CAPABILITY MATURITY MODEL (CMM): CMM is a strategy for improving the software process, irrespective of the actual life cycle model used. Software Engineering Institute (SEI) of Carnegie- ... in the CMM are called out in the auditing practices of the verifying implementation common feature.

Description : Explain acceptance testing and beta testing.

Last Answer : Ans. Acceptance Testing and Beta testing:System tests are designed to validate a fully developed system to assure that it meets its requirements. Acceptance and beta testing are form of system ... testing performed by the cutomer to determine whether he should accept the delivery of the system.

Description : Discuss the problems faced during software maintenance

Last Answer : Ans. Problems During Maintenance The most important problem during maintenance is that before correcting or modifying a program, the programmer must first understand it. Then, the programmer ... be very difficult. Therefore approach of development should be the production of maintainable software.

Description : Explain the concept of bottom-up, top-down and hybrid design.

Last Answer : Ans: Bottom up design:This approach leads to a style of design where we decide how to combine these modules to provide larger ones; to combine those to provide even larger ones, ... approaches are often not practical therefore hybrid approach which combines the above two approaches is often used.

Description : Why is good design important for a product?

Last Answer : Ans: A good design is the key to successful product. Almost 2000 years ago a Roman Architect recorded the following attributes of a good design:
Durability
Utility and
Charm A well-designed system is easy to implement, understandable and reliable and allows for smooth evolution.

Description : Define the following terms: (i) Product metrics (ii) Live variables (iii) FAN IN

Last Answer : Ans: (i) Product metrics: describe the characteristics of the product such as size, complexity, design features, performance, efficiency, reliability, portability, etc. (ii) A variable is live from its first ... count of the number of other Components that can call, or pass control, to Component A.

Description : List any three characteristics of a good SRS.

Last Answer : Ans:The SRS should be: Correct , Unambiguous, Complete 1. Correct: An SRS is correct iff every requirement stated therein is one that the software shall meet . 2. Unambiguous: An SRS is ... full labels and references to all figures and diagram and definition of all terms and units of measures

Description : Explain any two requirement elicitation methods.

Last Answer : Ans. Interviews: After receiving the problem statement from the customer, the first step is to arrange a meeting with the customer. During the meeting or interview, both the parties would like to ... -Board, flip chart, worksheets, wall stickiest, etc. Participants should not criticize or debate.

Description : Explain the software life cycle model that incorporates risk factor.

Last Answer : Ans. The problem with traditional software process models is that they do not deal sufficiently with the uncertainty, which is inherent to software projects. Important software projects failed ... . The risk analysis and validation steps eliminate errors in the early phases of development

Description : Discuss any two software characteristics.

Last Answer : Ans.Software is not manufactured: The life of a software is from concept exploration to the retirement of the software product. It is one time development effort and continuous maintenance effort in order ... this characteristic may be the best and may help us to accommodate any kind of change.

Description : What is structured programming and why is it important?

Last Answer : Ans. Structured programming is a term which was coined in the late 1960's to mean programming without using go to statements, programming using only while loops and if statements as ... Structured programming means programs can be read sequentially and are therefore easier to understand and inspect.

Description : What is reverse engineering?

Last Answer : Ans. It is a process of analysing software with a view to understanding its design and specification. - In reverse engineering, source code and executable code are the input. - It may be part of a ... to : - Serves as input to SRS for program replacement. - Be available to help program maintenance.

Description : What are dynamic testing tools? Explain the functions that they must support.

Last Answer : Ans. Dynamic testing tools: 1: coverage analyzers (execution verifiers): A coverage analyzer is the most common and important tool for testing. It is often relatively simple. One of the common ... tester to plan tests so they are both efficient and also effective at forcing discovery of defects.

Description : Define graph matrix and connection matrix.

Last Answer : Ans: Graph matrix: A graph matrix is a square matrix whose size(i.e., number of rows and columns) is equal to the number of nodes on the flow graph. Each row and column corresponds to ... letter has been replaced with a 1, indicating that a connection exists (zeros have been excluded for clarity).

Description : Describe system testing.

Last Answer : Ans. System testing: System test are designed to validate a fully developed systems with a view to assuring that it meets its requirements. There are three types of system testing: Alpha testing: This ... is performed by the customer to determine whether or not to accept the delivery of the system.

Description : Why does the software design improve when we use object-oriented concepts?

Last Answer : Ans. The software design improves when we use object-oriented concepts because 1.Object-orientation works at higher level of abstraction. The development can proceed at the object level and ... good programming techniques. 4.Object-oriented programming design and programming promote code re-use.

Description : Explain the development phases of the detailed COCOMO model.

Last Answer : Ans A software development is carried out in four successive phases, which are as follows: 1: plan/requirements: this is the first phase of the development cycle. The requirement is analyzed, the product ... product. This requires 16% to 34% of normal effort and 18% to 34% of the development time.

Description : Explain the development phases of the detailed COCOMO model.

Last Answer : Ans A software development is carried out in four successive phases, which are as follows: 1: plan/requirements: this is the first phase of the development cycle. The requirement is analyzed, the product ... product. This requires 16% to 34% of normal effort and 18% to 34% of the development time.

Description : Differentiate between structured analysis and structured design.

Last Answer : Ans. The aim of structured analysis is to transform the textual description of a problem into a graphic model. During structured analysis, functional decomposition of the system takes place, i ... define the structure of the solution that is suitable for implementation in some programming language.

Description : Discuss the various strategies of design. Which design strategy is most popular and practical?

Last Answer : Ans The most commonly used software design strategy involved decomposing the design into functional components with system state information held in a shared data area. The design strategies are: ... oriented design, the system state is decentralized and each object manages is own state information

Description : List four reasons why it is difficult to improve software process.

Last Answer : Ans It is difficult to improve software process due to following reasons: 1. Lack of knowledge-Many software developers are not aware of best practices of industry. In fact best ... lack of true commitment. Management sets no expectations from the development community regarding process improvement.

Description : What is ripple effect? How does it affect the stability of a program?

Last Answer : Ans. The ripple effect is a term used to describe a situation where, like the ever expanding ripples across water when an object is dropped into it, an effect from an initial state can be ... the program. Program stability is defined as the resistance to the amplification of changes in the program.

Description : Describe the various steps of the reuse-oriented model.

Last Answer : Ans. The reuse-oriented model, also called reuse-oriented development (ROD), is a method of software development in which a program is refined by producing a sequence of prototypes called models, each ... requirements, resulting in a product that does not fully meet the needs of its intended users.

Description : Describe the various types of restructuring techniques. How does restructuring help in maintaining a program?

Last Answer : Ans. Software restructuring modifies source code and / or data an effort to make it amenable to future changes. In general, restructuring does not modify the overall program architecture. It tends ... requires performing maintenance activities is reduced. (d) Software is easier to test and debug.

Description : What are the assumptions of the execution-time component model? Compare the execution-time component for basic model and the logarithmic Poisson model.

Last Answer : Ans. The execution-time component is based on the following assumptions: (1) Tests represent the environment in which the program will be used. (2) All failures are observed. (3) ... constant for basic model while the decrement per failure decreases exponentially as shown in the following graph.

Description : Explain Equivalence Class Partitioning and Boundary value analysis. Compare the two.

Last Answer : Ans. Equivalence Class Partitioning: It is a technique in black box testing. It is designed to minimize the number of test cases by dividing tests in such a way that the system is expected to act the ... valid data equivalence class, then you can select test case values like: 1, 11, 100, 950 etc.

Description : Explain the following with the help of an example (i) Common coupling (ii) Communicational cohesion (iii) Class diagram (iv) Structure chart

Last Answer : Ans. (i) Common coupling: Common coupling is when two modules share the same global data (e.g. a global variable). Changing the shared resource implies changing all the modules using it ... Whether each identifiable function is a manageable entity or should be broken down into smaller components.

Description : List the points of a simplified design process.

Last Answer : Ans. A design process may include a series of steps followed by designers. Depending on the product or service, some of these stages may be irrelevant, ignored in real-world situations in order ... the design process repeated (with corrections made) at any time before, during, or after production.

Description : Explain throw-away prototyping and evolutionary prototyping. Discuss the differences between the two.

Last Answer : Ans Throw-Away Prototyping: Also called close ended prototyping. Throwaway or Rapid Prototyping refers to the creation of a model that will eventually be discarded rather than becoming part of the ... develop parts of the system that they understand instead of working on developing a whole system.

Description : Discuss the important issues that a SRS must address.

Last Answer : Ans. SRS is the process of establishing the services, the system should provide of the system in new, it is difficult for software engineer to understand the nature of problem constraints under ... life cycle of the system. (iv) It should characterize acceptable responses to the undesired events.

Description : What are the objectives of software design? How do we transform an informal design to a detailed design?

Last Answer : Ans Objectives of software design The purpose of the design phase is to plan a solution of the problem specified by the requirements document. This phase is the first step in moving from ... details as the design is developed with constant backtracking to correct earlier, less formal, designs.

Description : Explain the waterfall model. Explain why it is more advantageous than adhoc methods.

Last Answer : Ans Waterfall Model: 1.The waterfall model is a sequential software development process, in which progress is seen as flowing steadily downwards (like a waterfall) through the phases of Conception, Initiation, ... approach. b. Iteration is not required. c. It is widely use because it is easy.

Description : Define capability. What are the quantities that determine the degree of capability of a software reliability model?

Last Answer : Ans: Capability refers to the ability of the model to estimate with satisfactory accuracy quantities needed by managers; engineers and users in planning and managing software development or running ... , expected date of reaching reliability, resource and cost requirements to reach the objectives.

Description : Explain the following: (i) Equivalence class testing. (ii) User and System documentation with examples. (iii) Core dumps.

Last Answer : Ans: (i) Equivalence class testing is based on partitioning the input domain of a program into a number of equivalence classes so that the test of a representative value of each ... indiscriminately. Sometimes it is difficult to interpret the dump which is represented using hexadecimal numbers.

Description : Define the following: a. Aggregation among objects. b. Class. c. Repeated inheritance. d. Encapsulation. e. Scenario.

Last Answer : Ans: a).Aggregation among objects Aggregation among objects represents a relationship. It is a whole/part relationship. Aggregation may imply containment. b).Class A class is a template that specifies the ... or it can be shown as an event trace diagram in which events between objects are shown.

Description : What are the three activities of risk assessment?

Last Answer : Ans: The three activities are identifying, analyzing and giving priorities. Risks can be identified by a check list or looking at previously identified risks. Risk analysis involves examining how ... with modification of risk input variables. Risk prioritization helps in focus on most severe risks.