2.3 Key terms

Question 1

Defensive design

Answer 1

the practice of planning for contingencies in the design state of a project or undertaking

Question 2

Anticipating misuse

Answer 2

the ability of a programmer to consider how the end user might accidentally or on purpose break the program, then writing additional code to handle these situations

Question 3

Authentication

Answer 3

verifying a user identity before they can use a program with username and password

Question 4

Input validation

Answer 4

ensuring data input by the user meets specific criteria before processing (eg range check)

Question 5

Maintainability

Answer 5

a selection of techniques and methods that make code easy to debug, update and maintain

Question 6

Naming conventions

Answer 6

an agreed way of naming variables so that they are easy to interpret and understand

Question 7

Indentation

Answer 7

shows how the program flows and where structures begin and end

Question 8

Commenting

Answer 8

used by the programmer to explain sections of the code

Question 9

Testing

Answer 9

running the program under various conditions to make sure it is going to work

Question 10

Iterative testing

Answer 10

when each module of a program is tested as it is developed

Question 11

Final/terminal testing

Answer 11

testing all modules of a program work together as expected so that it meets the expectations of the user with real data

Question 12

Syntax error

Answer 12

when the rules of the programming language have been broken and the program will not run

Question 13

Logical error

Answer 13

the program runs but does not give the expected output

Question 14

Test data

Answer 14

values used to test a program which includes normal, boundary, and erroneous

Question 15

Test data: Normal

Answer 15

data that the program will expect

Question 16

Test data: Boundary

Answer 16

data supplied that is designed to test the boundaries of a problem

Question 17

Test data: Invalid

Answer 17

data of the correct type but outside accepted validation limits

Question 18

Test data: Erroneous

Answer 18

data of the incorrect type which should be rejected by a computer system