Software Quality Assurance

What is Quality?
Quality defines to any measurable characteristics such as correctness, maintainability,
portability, testability, usability, reliability, efficiency, integrity, reusability, and interoperability.

There are two kinds of Quality:

Quality of Design: Quality of Design refers to the characteristics that designers specify for an
item. The grade of materials, tolerances, and performance specifications that all contribute to the
quality of design.

Quality of conformance: Quality of conformance is the degree to which the design

specifications are followed during manufacturing. Greater the degree of conformance, the higher
is the level of quality of conformance.

Software Quality: Software Quality is defined as the conformance to explicitly state functional
and performance requirements, explicitly documented development standards, and inherent
characteristics that are expected of all professionally developed software.

Quality Control: Quality Control involves a series of inspections, reviews, and tests used
throughout the software process to ensure each work product meets the requirements place upon
it. Quality control includes a feedback loop to the process that created the work product.

Quality Assurance: Quality Assurance is the preventive set of activities that provide greater
confidence that the project will be completed successfully.

Quality Assurance focuses on how the engineering and management activity will be done?

As anyone is interested in the quality of the final product, it should be assured that we are
building the right product.

It can be assured only when we do inspection & review of intermediate products, if there are any
bugs, then it is debugged. This quality can be enhanced.

Importance of Quality
We would expect the quality to be a concern of all producers of goods and services. However,
the distinctive characteristics of software and in particular its intangibility and complexity, make
special demands.
Increasing criticality of software: The final customer or user is naturally concerned about the
general quality of software, especially its reliability. This is increasing in the case as
organizations become more dependent on their computer systems and software is used more and
more in safety-critical areas. For example, to control aircraft.

The intangibility of software: This makes it challenging to know that a particular task in a
project has been completed satisfactorily. The results of these tasks can be made tangible by
demanding that the developers produce 'deliverables' that can be examined for quality.

Accumulating errors during software development: As computer system development is

made up of several steps where the output from one level is input to the next, the errors in the
earlier ?deliverables? will be added to those in the later stages leading to accumulated
determinable effects. In general the later in a project that an error is found, the more expensive it
will be to fix. In addition, because the number of errors in the system is unknown, the debugging
phases of a project are particularly challenging to control.

Software Quality Assurance

Software quality assurance is a planned and systematic plan of all actions necessary to provide
adequate confidence that an item or product conforms to establish technical requirements.

A set of activities designed to calculate the process by which the products are developed or
manufactured.

SQA Encompasses

o A quality management approach

o Effective Software engineering technology (methods and tools)
o Formal technical reviews that are tested throughout the software process
o A multitier testing strategy
o Control of software documentation and the changes made to it.
o A procedure to ensure compliances with software development standards
o Measuring and reporting mechanisms.

SQA Activities
Software quality assurance is composed of a variety of functions associated with two different
constituencies ? the software engineers who do technical work and an SQA group that has
responsibility for quality assurance planning, record keeping, analysis, and reporting.

Following activities are performed by an independent SQA group:

 1. Prepares an SQA plan for a project: The program is developed during project planning
and is reviewed by all stakeholders. The plan governs quality assurance activities
performed by the software engineering team and the SQA group. The plan identifies
calculation to be performed, audits and reviews to be performed, standards that apply to
the project, techniques for error reporting and tracking, documents to be produced by the
SQA team, and amount of feedback provided to the software project team.
2. Participates in the development of the project's software process description: The
software team selects a process for the work to be performed. The SQA group reviews
the process description for compliance with organizational policy, internal software
standards, externally imposed standards (e.g. ISO-9001), and other parts of the software
project plan.
3. Reviews software engineering activities to verify compliance with the defined
software process: The SQA group identifies, reports, and tracks deviations from the
process and verifies that corrections have been made.
4. Audits designated software work products to verify compliance with those defined
as a part of the software process: The SQA group reviews selected work products,
identifies, documents and tracks deviations, verify that corrections have been made, and
periodically reports the results of its work to the project manager.
5. Ensures that deviations in software work and work products are documented and
handled according to a documented procedure: Deviations may be encountered in the
project method, process description, applicable standards, or technical work products.
6. Records any noncompliance and reports to senior management: Non- compliance
items are tracked until they are resolved.

Quality Assurance v/s Quality control

Quality Assurance Quality Control

Quality Assurance (QA) is the set of actions Quality Control (QC) is described as the
including facilitation, training, measurement, and processes and methods used to compare
analysis needed to provide adequate confidence that product quality to requirements and
processes are established and continuously applicable standards, and the actions are
improved to produce products or services that taken when a nonconformance is detected.
conform to specifications and are fit for use.
QA is an activity that establishes and calculates the QC is an activity that demonstrates
processes that produce the product. If there is no whether or not the product produced met
process, there is no role for QA. standards.

QA helps establish process QC relates to a particular product or

service

QA sets up a measurement program to evaluate QC verified whether particular attributes

processes exist, or do not exist, in a explicit product
or service.

QA identifies weakness in processes and improves QC identifies defects for the primary goals
them of correcting errors.

Quality Assurance is a managerial tool. Quality Control is a corrective tool.

Verification is an example of QA. Validation is an example of QC.

Software Configuration Management

When we develop software, the product (software) undergoes many changes in their
maintenance phase; we need to handle these changes effectively.

Several individuals (programs) works together to achieve these common goals. This individual
produces several work product (SC Items) e.g., Intermediate version of modules or test data used
during debugging, parts of the final product.

The elements that comprise all information produced as a part of the software process are
collectively called a software configuration.

As software development progresses, the number of Software Configuration elements (SCI's)

grow rapidly.

These are handled and controlled by SCM. This is where we require software configuration
management.

A configuration of the product refers not only to the product's constituent but also to a particular
version of the component.

Therefore, SCM is the discipline which

o Identify change
 o Monitor and control change
o Ensure the proper implementation of change made to the item.
o Auditing and reporting on the change made.

Configuration Management (CM) is a technic of identifying, organizing, and controlling

modification to software being built by a programming team.

The objective is to maximize productivity by minimizing mistakes (errors).

CM is used to essential due to the inventory management, library management, and updation
management of the items essential for the project.

Why do we need Configuration Management?

Multiple people are working on software which is consistently updating. It may be a method
where multiple version, branches, authors are involved in a software project, and the team is
geographically distributed and works concurrently. It changes in user requirements, and policy,
budget, schedules need to be accommodated.

Importance of SCM
It is practical in controlling and managing the access to various SCIs e.g., by preventing the two
members of a team for checking out the same component for modification at the same time.

It provides the tool to ensure that changes are being properly implemented.

It has the capability of describing and storing the various constituent of software.

SCM is used in keeping a system in a consistent state by automatically producing derived

version upon modification of the same component.

Software Design Principles

Software design principles are concerned with providing means to handle the complexity of the
design process effectively. Effectively managing the complexity will not only reduce the effort
needed for design but can also reduce the scope of introducing errors during design.

Following are the principles of Software Design

Problem Partitioning
For small problem, we can handle the entire problem at once but for the significant problem,
divide the problems and conquer the problem it means to divide the problem into smaller pieces
so that each piece can be captured separately.

For software design, the goal is to divide the problem into manageable pieces.

Benefits of Problem Partitioning

1. Software is easy to understand

2. Software becomes simple
3. Software is easy to test
4. Software is easy to modify
5. Software is easy to maintain
6. Software is easy to expand

These pieces cannot be entirely independent of each other as they together form the system. They
have to cooperate and communicate to solve the problem. This communication adds complexity.

Note: As the number of partition increases = Cost of partition and complexity increases
Abstraction
An abstraction is a tool that enables a designer to consider a component at an abstract level
without bothering about the internal details of the implementation. Abstraction can be used for
existing element as well as the component being designed.

Here, there are two common abstraction mechanisms

1. Functional Abstraction
2. Data Abstraction

Functional Abstraction

i. A module is specified by the method it performs.

ii. The details of the algorithm to accomplish the functions are not visible to the user of the function.

Functional abstraction forms the basis for Function oriented design approaches.

Data Abstraction

Details of the data elements are not visible to the users of data. Data Abstraction forms the basis
for Object Oriented design approaches.

Modularity
Modularity specifies to the division of software into separate modules which are differently
named and addressed and are integrated later on in to obtain the completely functional software.
It is the only property that allows a program to be intellectually manageable. Single large
programs are difficult to understand and read due to a large number of reference variables,
control paths, global variables, etc.

The desirable properties of a modular system are:

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o Each module is a well-defined system that can be used with other applications.
o Each module has single specified objectives.
o Modules can be separately compiled and saved in the library.
o Modules should be easier to use than to build.
 o Modules are simpler from outside than inside.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Modularity

In this topic, we will discuss various advantage and disadvantage of Modularity.

Advantages of Modularity

There are several advantages of Modularity

o It allows large programs to be written by several or different people

o It encourages the creation of commonly used routines to be placed in the library and used by
other programs.
o It simplifies the overlay procedure of loading a large program into main storage.
o It provides more checkpoints to measure progress.
o It provides a framework for complete testing, more accessible to test
o It produced the well designed and more readable program.

Disadvantages of Modularity

There are several disadvantages of Modularity

o Execution time maybe, but not certainly, longer

o Storage size perhaps, but is not certainly, increased
o Compilation and loading time may be longer
o Inter-module communication problems may be increased
 o More linkage required, run-time may be longer, more source lines must be written, and more
documentation has to be done

Modular Design

Modular design reduces the design complexity and results in easier and faster implementation by
allowing parallel development of various parts of a system. We discuss a different section of
modular design in detail in this section:

1. Functional Independence: Functional independence is achieved by developing functions that

perform only one kind of task and do not excessively interact with other modules. Independence
is important because it makes implementation more accessible and faster. The independent
modules are easier to maintain, test, and reduce error propagation and can be reused in other
programs as well. Thus, functional independence is a good design feature which ensures
software quality.

It is measured using two criteria:

o Cohesion: It measures the relative function strength of a module.

o Coupling: It measures the relative interdependence among modules.

2. Information hiding: The fundamental of Information hiding suggests that modules can be
characterized by the design decisions that protect from the others, i.e., In other words, modules
should be specified that data include within a module is inaccessible to other modules that do not
need for such information.

The use of information hiding as design criteria for modular system provides the most significant
benefits when modifications are required during testing's and later during software maintenance.
This is because as most data and procedures are hidden from other parts of the software,
inadvertent errors introduced during modifications are less likely to propagate to different
locations within the software.

Strategy of Design
A good system design strategy is to organize the program modules in such a method that are easy
to develop and latter too, change. Structured design methods help developers to deal with the
size and complexity of programs. Analysts generate instructions for the developers about how
code should be composed and how pieces of code should fit together to form a program.

To design a system, there are two possible approaches:

1. Top-down Approach
 2. Bottom-up Approach

1. Top-down Approach: This approach starts with the identification of the main components
and then decomposing them into their more detailed sub-components.

2. Bottom-up Approach: A bottom-up approach begins with the lower details and moves
towards up the hierarchy, as shown in fig. This approach is suitable in case of an existing system.

oftware Testing Tutorial

Software testing tutorial provides basic and advanced concepts of software testing. Our software
testing tutorial is designed for beginners and professionals.

Software testing is widely used technology because it is compulsory to test each and every
software before deployment.

Our Software testing tutorial includes all topics of Software testing such as Methods such as
Black Box Testing, White Box Testing, Visual Box Testing and Gray Box Testing. Levels such
as Unit Testing, Integration Testing, Regression Testing, Functional Testing. System Testing,
Acceptance Testing, Alpha Testing, Beta Testing, Non-Functional testing, Security Testing,
Portability Testing.

What is Software Testing

Software testing is a process of identifying the correctness of software by considering its all
attributes (Reliability, Scalability, Portability, Re-usability, Usability) and evaluating the
execution of software components to find the software bugs or errors or defects.
Software testing provides an independent view and objective of the software and gives surety of
fitness of the software. It involves testing of all components under the required services to
confirm that whether it is satisfying the specified requirements or not. The process is also
providing the client with information about the quality of the software.

Testing is mandatory because it will be a dangerous situation if the software fails any of time due
to lack of testing. So, without testing software cannot be deployed to the end user.

What is Testing
Testing is a group of techniques to determine the correctness of the application under the
predefined script but, testing cannot find all the defect of application. The main intent of testing
is to detect failures of the application so that failures can be discovered and corrected. It does not
demonstrate that a product functions properly under all conditions but only that it is not working
in some specific conditions.

Testing furnishes comparison that compares the behavior and state of software against
mechanisms because the problem can be recognized by the mechanism. The mechanism may
include past versions of the same specified product, comparable products, and interfaces of
expected purpose, relevant standards, or other criteria but not limited up to these.

Testing includes an examination of code and also the execution of code in various environments,
conditions as well as all the examining aspects of the code. In the current scenario of software
development, a testing team may be separate from the development team so that Information
derived from testing can be used to correct the process of software development.

The success of software depends upon acceptance of its targeted audience, easy graphical user
interface, strong functionality load test, etc. For example, the audience of banking is totally
different from the audience of a video game. Therefore, when an organization develops a
software product, it can assess whether the software product will be beneficial to its purchasers
and other audience.

Type of Software testing

We have various types of testing available in the market, which are used to test the application or
the software.

With the help of below image, we can easily understand the type of software testing:
Manual testing
The process of checking the functionality of an application as per the customer needs without
taking any help of automation tools is known as manual testing. While performing the manual
testing on any application, we do not need any specific knowledge of any testing tool, rather than
have a proper understanding of the product so we can easily prepare the test document.

Manual testing can be further divided into three types of testing, which are as follows:

o White box testing

o Black box testing
o Gray box testing

Software Re-Engineering is the examination and alteration of a system to reconstitute

it in a new form. The principle of Re-Engineering when applied to the software
development process is called software re-engineering. It positively affects software
cost, quality, customer service, and delivery speed. In Software Re-engineering, we are
improving the software to make it more efficient and effective.
It is a process where the software’s design is changed and the source code is created
from scratch. Sometimes software engineers notice that certain software product
components need more upkeep than other components, necessitating their re-
engineering.
The re-Engineering procedure requires the following steps
1. Decide which components of the software we want to re-engineer. Is it the complete
software or just some components of the software?
2. Do Reverse Engineering to learn about existing software functionalities.
3. Perform restructuring of source code if needed for example modifying
functional-Oriented programs in Object-Oriented programs
4. Perform restructuring of data if required
5. Use Forward Engineering ideas to generate re-engineered software

The need for software Re-engineering: Software re-engineering is an economical

process for software development and quality enhancement of the product. This process
enables us to identify the useless consumption of deployed resources and the constraints
that are restricting the development process so that the development process could be
made easier and cost-effective (time, financial, direct advantage, optimize the code,
indirect benefits, etc.) and maintainable. The software reengineering is necessary for
having-
a) Boost up productivity: Software reengineering increase productivity by optimizing
the code and database so that processing gets faster.
b) Processes in continuity: The functionality of older software products can be still
used while the testing or development of software.
c) Improvement opportunity: Meanwhile the process of software reengineering, not
only software qualities, features, and functionality but also your skills are refined, and
new ideas hit your mind. This makes the developer’s mind accustomed to capturing
new opportunities so that more and more new features can be developed.
d) Reduction in risks: Instead of developing the software product from scratch or from
the beginning stage, developers develop the product from its existing stage to enhance
some specific features brought in concern by stakeholders or its users. Such kind of
practice reduces the chances of fault fallibility.
e) Saves time: As stated above, the product is developed from the existing stage rather
than the beginning stage, so the time consumed in software engineering is lesser.
f) Optimization: This process refines the system features, and functionalities and
reduces the complexity of the product by consistent optimization as maximum as
possible.
Re-Engineering cost factors:

 The quality of the software is to be re-engineered.

 The tool support availability for engineering.
 The extent of the data conversion is required.
 The availability of expert staff for Re-engineering.

Software Re-Engineering Activities:

1. Inventory Analysis:
Every software organization should have an inventory of all the applications.

 Inventory can be nothing more than a spreadsheet model containing information that
provides a detailed description of every active application.
 By sorting this information according to business criticality, longevity, current
maintainability, and other local important criteria, candidates for re-engineering
appear.
 The resource can then be allocated to a candidate application for re-engineering
work.
2. Document reconstructing:
Documentation of a system either explains how it operates or how to use it.

 Documentation must be updated.

 It may not be necessary to fully document an application.
 The system is business-critical and must be fully re-documented.
3. Reverse Engineering:
Reverse engineering is a process of design recovery. Reverse engineering tools extract
data and architectural and procedural design information from an existing program.

4. Code Reconstructing:

 To accomplish code reconstruction, the source code is analyzed using a

reconstructing tool. Violations of structured programming construct are noted and
code is then reconstructed.
 The resultant restructured code is reviewed and tested to ensure that no anomalies
have been introduced.
5. Data Restructuring:

 Data restructuring begins with a reverse engineering activity.

 The current data architecture is dissected, and the necessary data models are defined.
 Data objects and attributes are identified, and existing data structures are reviewed
for quality.
6. Forward Engineering:
Forward Engineering also called renovation or reclamation not only recovers design
information from existing software but uses this information to alter or reconstitute the
existing system to improve its overall quality.