Final Material - Midterm Material

Question 1

What is the aim of software engineering?

Answer 1

To produce fault-free software that satisfies user needs, is delivered on time, and within budget

Question 2

What is a software development life cycle?

Answer 2

A description of the steps that should be performed when building software

Question 3

What are the major steps of a software development life cycle?

Answer 3

Requirements, analysis, design, implementation, testing, and maintenance

Question 4

What is the most costly phase of a software development life cycle and why?

Answer 4

Maintenance (about 2/3 of total cost). This is because it is spread over a much longer time frame

Question 5

What is the difference between a software process and a process model?

Answer 5

A layer of abstraction similar to the difference between an ADT and an implemented data type

Question 6

What is the waterfall model?

Answer 6

Plan-driven process model with separate and distinct phases of specification and development

Question 7

What are the stages of the waterfall model?

Answer 7

Requirements definition
System and software design
Implementation and unit testing
Integration and system testing
Operation and Maintenance

Question 8

What are the problems with the waterfall model?

Answer 8

It is difficult to change things once the process has begun and is costly to go back
The client only sees a working product when it is entirely complete

Question 9

When should the waterfall model be used?

Answer 9

When requirements are well understood and changes will be limited. Also for large systems engineering projects

Question 10

What are the 5 levels of the Capability Maturity Model (CMM) and what do they mean?

Answer 10

1. Initial - Process is unpredictable, poorly controlled, and reactive
2. Repeatable - Processes are made for specific project but there is no organization wide process and so the organization is reactive as a whole
3. Defined - A process has been defined at the organization level but projects may change the process to meet its specifics
4. Managed - You are measuring the process and analyzing the resulting data
5. Optimizing - Using the collected data to make improvements to the process

Question 11

What is the rational unified process?

Answer 11

A generic process for object-oriented models designed and documented using UML. It is iterative and incremental

Question 12

What are the phases of the rational unified process?

Answer 12

Inception - Establish the business case for the system
Elaboration - Develop understanding of the problem domain and system architecture
Construction - System design, programming, and testing
Transition - Deploy the system in its operating environment

Question 13

What are the core workflows of the rational unified process?

Answer 13

Requirements, analysis, design, implementation, test

Question 14

What are the rational unified process best practices?

Answer 14

1. Develop software iteratively - Plan increments based on customer priority with higher priority items coming first
2. Manage requirements - Explicitly document customer requirements and keep track of changes
3. Use component based architecture - Organize the system out of reusable components
4. Visually model software - Use UML models to present static and dynamic views of the software
5. Continuously verify quality - Performing testing throughout the project
6. Control changes - Manage changes using a change management system and configuration management tools

Question 15

What are the 4 points of the agile manifesto?

Answer 15

1. Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
2. Working software over comprehensive documentation
3. Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
4. Responding to change over following a plan

Question 16

What is pair programming?

Answer 16

When two programmers work together at the same machine to develop the software. The pairs are created dynamically so every programmer works with every other programmer at some point

Question 17

What is refactoring and why is it important?

Answer 17

Refactoring is the process of making constant improvements to code throughout the development process. It is important because it helps to make changes easier when they need to be implemented

Question 18

How is refactoring done?

Answer 18

The programming team looks for any improvements to be made within the code and implement them event if there is no immediate reason for doing so. In doing this, the code becomes much more understandable

Question 19

What is scrum?

Answer 19

Scrum is an agile methodology with a focus on project management

Question 20

What type of environment should a scrum master foster?

Answer 20

An environment where a product owner orders work for a problem into a product backlog, the scrum team turns a selection of work into an increment of value for the sprint, and the scrum team and stakeholders inspect the results and adjust for next sprint

Question 21

What is a scrum team?

Answer 21

A self organizing group of developers usually 3-9 people

Question 22

What is a scrum meeting?

Answer 22

A daily meeting where the scrum team reviews what has been done and prioritizes work to be done that day

Question 23

What is a scrum master?

Answer 23

The project manager for the scrum team. They ensure the scrum process is being followed and act as a liaison between the scrum team and the rest of the company

Question 24

Why is scrum preferred to extreme programming?

Answer 24

Extreme programming gets the job done fast but it is messy and there is no project management

Question 25

What are the advantages of scrum?

Answer 25

1. Larger projects are broken down into manageable chunks
2. Ensures efficient use of client time and money
3. Development team and client work closely together and receive more feedback
4. Allows for increased flexibility

Question 26

What is a sprint?

Answer 26

A single development iteration in scrum, usually 2-4 weeks

Question 27

What is velocity and how is it calculated?

Answer 27

Velocity is the amount of work that is done within a period of time such as a spring. Could be based on story points or person hours.
It is calculated by finding the average number of story points per sprint

Question 28

What is kanban?

Answer 28

An agile software development practice based on visual project management to track tasks and reduce inefficiencies

Question 29

What is the difference between scrum and kanban?

Answer 29

Scrum is a discrete process whereas kanban is a continuous process. This means that work in scrum is organized into sprints of defined length and work is added to a sprint backlog to complete. In kanban, user stories are continually moved from the backlog, to in progress, to complete, until the project is finished