16 Comparing QA Techniques

Question 1

Types of QA Alternatives

Answer 1

Formal Verification
Defect Prevention
Testing
Inspection
Fault tolerance
Failure Containment

Question 2

Formal Verification

Answer 2

Positive Confirmation/Correctness.
On design/Code with formal spec.
Low/No defect situations.
Practicality: high cost to benfits.
Human intensive, rigorous training. (therefore, high up-front cost)

Question 3

Defect Prevention:

Answer 3

Most effective if causes known.
Good at pervasive problems.
Low cost, due to downstream damage.
Issue: “if causes”, and up-front cost.

Question 4

Inspection:

Answer 4

Good throughtout dev. process.
Works on many software artifacts.
Conceptual/static faults
High fault density situations.
- non-blocking
- experience to efficiency.
Human intensive, varied cost.

Question 5

Fault Tolerance (FT)

Answer 5

Dynamic problems (must be rare)
High cost & reliability (low defect)
Technique problems (independent NVP)
Process/technology intensive.

Question 6

Failure Containment

Answer 6

Similiar to FT, but even more so.
Rare conditions related to accidents.
Extremely high cost.
- apply only when safety matters.
Many specialized techniques.
Process/technology intensive.

Question 7

In practice, a QA Engineer needs an :

Answer 7

integrated/combined strategy & automated tool support.