Software Testing and Quality Assurance

General Description

• black-box or functional testing, with a focus on covering (or thoroughly testing) external functions required by target customers and users;
• clear/white-box or structural testing; with a focus on covering (or thoroughly testing) implemented internal components and structures;
• usage-based statistical testing, with a focus on adequately testing operations commonly used by target customers and users to ensure product reliability after product delivery.

Specific testing techniques to be covered include: checklists, equivalent class/partition testing, input domain boundary testing, finite state machine testing, control flow testing, data dependency analysis and data flow testing, basic operational profiles and Markov chains for usage-based statistical testing, fault injection and mutation testing, as well as specialized testing techniques for specific purposes and/or applicable to different application domains.

Test activities, management, automation, and related issues, such as testing sub-phases, team organization, testing process, people's roles and responsibilities, test automation tools, test integration, etc., will also be discussed.

The rest of the class time will be devoted to the following topics:

• General concepts about quality, quality assurance (QA), and software quality engineering (SQE). Concepts related to quality will be covered, including reliability, dependability, safety, etc. QA activities and SQE process will also be discussed.
• Other QA alternatives beyond testing, including, defect prevention and process improvement, inspection, formal verification, and fault tolerance and safety assurance. A good understanding of each alternative's relative strength and weakness will help us construct and carry out a comprehensive QA strategy that more often than not will include and integrate several such alternatives.
• Quality assessment and improvement, including, measurement and feedback mechanisms, quality models and measurements, defect analysis, risk identification, and software reliability engineering. These activities will help us monitor, assess, improve the overall SQE process to achieve our quality goals effectively and efficiently.

Workload and Grading

Textbook and Other Information

• Jeff Tian, "Software Quality Engineering: Testing, Quality Assurance, and Quantifiable Improvement" John Wiley and Sons, Inc., and IEEE Computer Society Press, 2005.
  ISBN: 0-471-71345-7
  Available at SMU bookstore, official Wiley website for the book, or your favorite local/online booksellers.

• List of topics and tentative schedule

• Other references, reading material, and selected class material will be listed or posted online.

• Notice 1: If you need to make alternative arrangements for turning-in material or taking exams, you must contact the instructor ahead of time, unless it is truly an emergency. (Otherwise you'll receive 0 for the specific item.)

• Notice 2 (Relevant SMU policies):
  * Disability Accommodations: Students needing academic accommodations for a disability must first be registered with Disability Accommodations & Success Strategies (DASS) to verify the disability and to establish eligibility for accommodations. Students may call 214-768-1470 or visit http://www.smu.edu/ALEC/DASS to begin the process. Once registered, students should then schedule an appointment with the professor to make appropriate arrangements.
  * Religious Observance: Religiously observant students wishing to be absent on holidays that require missing class should notify their professors in writing at the beginning of the semester, and should discuss with them, in advance, acceptable ways of making up any work missed because of the absence. (See University Policy No. 1.9.)
  * Excused Absences for University Extracurricular Activities: Excused Absences for University Extracurricular Activities: Students participating in an officially sanctioned, scheduled University extracurricular activity should be given the opportunity to make up class assignments or other graded assignments missed as a result of their participation. It is the responsibility of the student to make arrangements with the instructor prior to any missed scheduled examination or other missed assignment for making up the work. (University Undergraduate Catalogue)