ITECH7409 Software Testing Assessment

Research on Software Testing and Standards Overview

According to Standards Australia:

“Standards are voluntary documents that set out specifications, procedures and guidelines that aim to ensure products, services, and systems are safe, consistent, and reliable. They cover a variety of subjects, including consumer products and services, the environment, construction, energy and water utilities, and more.

To ensure they keep pace with new technologies, standards are regularly reviewed by Standards Australia technical committees.1”

There are several standards: international, regional and national, some 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.

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

Assessment Details

You will need to:

• locate a research paper related to software testing that refers to at least one
• ensure that you can download a copy of this 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 quick search link on the library home page:

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 that has been used in the research paper:

• What is the standard name? Title and number
• 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 the 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 ANSI2/IEEE3 Standard 8294 and ANSI/IEEE Standard 1008. Although this paper is somewhat outdated, it 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 brief description of the research paper and chosen standard
• response to questions for the standard
• listing and a discussion of commonalities and differences between the two documents
• a conclusion summarizing the report findings

2 American National Standards Institute

3 Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers

4 Current versions of both these standards are available online at Federation University library