Software Testing and Quality Assurance

Lecture 1: Overview of Software Testing and Quality Assurance

Produced by VTT on Dec 14th 2011

Outline
Course program and materials Workstation for students Goals of the course Testing vs. Quality Assurance (QA) Why a software has bugs? History evolution of software testing (ST) vs. career perspectives Cost of failure vs. defect correction cost
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Course program
At university:
Lectures: 19 hours Practices: 26 hours (require attending 100%)

At home: 60 hours for reading materials before class is taken Examination: 4-9 hours
Theory test: 20-40 seconds (15%) Practice test: 3-7 hours

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Materials for ref.

Dorothy Graham, Erik van Veenendaal, Isabel Evans and Rex Black, Foundations of Software Testing: ISTQB Certification: 2nd Edition, Cengage Learning EMEA, 2008 Gerald D. Everett and Jr. Raymond McLeod, Software Testing: Testing across the Entire Software Development Life Cycle, Wiley-Intnerscience, A John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Publication, 2007 Glenford J. Myers, The Art of Software Testing: 2nd Edition, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Publication, 2004 Ieff Tian, Software Quality Enginnering: Testing, Quality Assurance, and Quatifiable Improvement, Wiley-Intnerscience, A John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Publication, 2005 Nick Jenkins, A Software Testing Primer: An Introduction to Software Testing, 2008

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Additional materials
L Bnh Cng, Kim Th V Bo m Cht Lng Phn Mm, H Bch Khoa, 202p, 2011 L Th Thu Hng and Nguyn Th Thu Hin, Kim Th Phn Mm, H S Phm K Thut Hng Yn, 128p, 2010

Websites:

http://www.vietnamesetestingboard.org

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Workstation for students

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Workstation for students (cont)

Download
http://travt/bmt/SE312/Materials
http://travt/bmt/SE312/Lectures

Upload
http://travt/bmt/SE312/DropOffLibrary http://travt/bmt/SE312/Proposals

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Workstation for students (cont)

Take tests
http://travt/bmt/SE312/Quick Test

Access info:
User: se312sv
Pass: bmtSE312

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Goals of this course

Provide knowledge and skills for those who want to do: software testing

software quality assurance

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Testing vs. Quality Assurance

Quality Assurance

Testing

Scope & Content

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Definition
Software Testing and Quality Assurance is not just finding software bugs, but also the process of checking and verifying a software which has met both requirements and expectations of customers for products, helps reduce adjustment costs and development time

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Why software has bugs?

Software complexity

Programming errors
Changing requirements

Time pressures
Poorly documented code

Software development tools

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Historical evolution of ST
1950s-1960s: no formal development or testing processes 1960s-1970s: many corrections & refinements yield very stable & reliable software
Customers began to expect software to be highly reliable & stable over extended periods of time Developers began to examine the development processes

1970s-1980s: successful in capturing the best development practices

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Historical evolution of ST
1990s: testing became recognized Reichheld Jr. & Sasser, 1990: quality control shifting from zero defect in products to zero defection of customers Y2K: software testing activities has been considered as the savior of the 21st century Billions of dollars were spent mitigating the possible business disasters caused by software development activities.
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Perspective of software testing

2001: software failures cost of US economy ~ $59.5B/ year.
$22.2B of annual losses could be eliminated by software testing

Testing activities: ~ 30-50% time of developing software

Career opportunities

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Cost of Failure
Example: Ford Pinto,1971, an error of gas tank which causes an explosion when Pinto is rearended in a collision
Ford assigned $25,000 to human life lost in a car fire. Estimated ~$2.20/car from faulty gas tank litigation Ford calculated the cost of retrofitting every Pinto with a gas tank bracket to be $8.59-11.59/car the best ROI decision: refrain from retrofitting and pay all faulty gas tank lawsuits Wrongly death lawsuit settlements cost Ford a loss of $5M10M An incensed jury hits Ford with a $128M settlement
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(Basili & Boehm, 2001)

Cost of of correcting defects Cost correcting defects Cost of correcting defects

$14,102 $14,102

$7,136 $7,136 $977 $977 $139 $139 Design & code $455 $455 Compile or bind Preprod integration Postrelease Development phase

Average costs of correcting defects in software development

test early and test often

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