ISTQB - Chapter 3 Flashcards
What is the difference between dynamic and static testing in terms of the types of work products they can be applied to?
Dynamic test execution can only be applied to software code, whereas static test execution can be applied to any human-readable software work product
What is the difference between static analysis and reviews?
Static analysis typically uses tools to evaluate code against various criteria as well as to evaluate spelling and grammar correctness and reading difficulty. Reviews examine the work product manually, relying on the reviewers’ expertise while reading the work product to identify defects.
The following items are examples of what?
- Dead code
- Variables whose value is used before they have been identified
- Broken web page links
- Spelling and grammar errors in requirements documents (identified using natural language tools)
Defects that can be identified by static analysis
List 5 work products that can be examined by static testing
- Specifications (business, functional, security)
- User stories, epics, acceptance criteria
- Code
- Testware
- User guides
- Web pages
- Contracts, project plans, schedules, budgets
- Models
What are the 2 main benefits of static testing?
- Early feedback on quality issues
- Detecting defects at an early stage, which saves time and money
Are the following defects easier to detect during dynamic or static testing?
- Requirements defects
- Design defects (e.g. inefficient algorithms or database structures)
- Coding defects (e.g. issues with variables, unreachable code, duplicate code)
- Deviations from standards (e.g. coding standards)
- Incorrect interface specifications (e.g. mismatch in units of measurement)
- Security vulnerabilities
- Traceability problems (e.g. missing tests for an acceptance criterion)
- Maintainability defects (e.g. poor reusability, code that is difficult to analyze and modify)
Static testing
Do static and dynamic testing have the same objectives? Do they find the same types of defects?
They can have the same objectives (e.g. assessing quality, identifying defects), but they find different types of defects
Does static testing identify defects or failures?
Static testing finds defects themselves, rather than failures resulting from defects
What is the point of having a different person review a work product?
Having a different person look at a work product is a way to overcome cognitive bias, the tendency to see what we intended rather than what we actually wrote.
List the 5 stages to a review process
- Planning
- Initiate review
- Individual review
- Issue communication and analysis
- Fixing and reporting
Which stage of the review process includes the following activities?
- Defining the scope of the review
- Estimating effort and timeframe
- Identifying review characteristics e.g. roles, activities, checklists
- Selecting participants and allocating roles
- Defining the entry and exit criteria
- Checking that entry criteria are met before the review starts
Planning stage
Which stage of the review process includes the following activities?
- Distributing the work products and any other relevant material
- Explaining the scope, objectives, process, roles, and work products to the participants
- Answering any questions from participants
Initiate review stage
Which stage of the review process includes the following activities?
- Reviewing all or part of the work document(s)
- Noting potential defects, recommendations, and questions
Individual review stage
Which stage of the review process includes the following activities?
- Communicating identified potential defects
- Analyzing potential defects, assigning ownership and status
- Evaluating and documenting quality characteristics
- Evaluating the review findings against the exit criteria
Issue communication and analysis stage
Which stage of the review process includes the following activities?
- Creating defect reports
- Communicating defects to the appropriate person or team
- Fixing defects
- Recording updated status of defects
- Gathering metrics
- Checking that exit criteria are met
- Accepting the work product when the exit criteria are reached
Fixing and reporting stage
List the 6 potential roles involved in a review process
- Author
- Management
- Facilitator (or moderator)
- Review leader
- Reviewers
- Scribe
Which role in a review process is responsible for the following tasks?
- Is responsible for review planning
- Decides on the execution of reviews
- Assigns staff, budget, and time
- Monitors ongoing cost effectiveness
- Executes control decisions in the event of inadequate outcomes
Management
What is the difference between a facilitator and a review leader?
Facilitator (or moderator):
- Ensures the effective running of review meetings
- Mediates between various points of view
- Is the person upon whom the success of the review often depends
Review leader (sometimes done by facilitator or management):
- Takes overall responsibility for the review
- Decides who will be involved
Which role in a review process is responsible for the following tasks?
- Creates the work product under review
- Fixes defects in the work product under review (if necessary)
Author
Which role in a review process is responsible for the following tasks?
- May be subject matter experts, persons working on the project, stakeholders with an interest in the work product, and/or individuals with specific technical or business backgrounds
- Identifying potential defects in the work product under review
- May represent different perspectives (e.g., tester, developer, user, operator, business analyst, usability expert, etc.)
Reviewers
Which role in a review process is responsible for the following tasks?
- Collates potential defects found during the individual review activity
- Records new potential defects, open points, and decisions from the review meeting
Scribe
What are the 4 main types of review?
- Informal review
- Walkthrough
- Technical review
- Inspection
Which type of review has the following characteristics?
- Main purpose: detecting potential defects
- Possible additional purposes: generating new ideas or solutions, quickly solving minor problems
- Not based on a formal (documented) process
- May not involve a review meeting
- May be performed by a colleague of the author (buddy check) or by more people
- Results may be documented
- Varies in usefulness depending on the reviewers
- Use of checklists is optional
- Very commonly used in Agile development
Informal review
Which type of review has the following characteristics?
- Main purposes: find defects, improve the software product, consider alternative implementations, evaluate conformance to standards and specifications
- Possible additional purposes: exchanging ideas about techniques or style variations, training of participants, achieving consensus
- Individual preparation before the review meeting is optional
- Review meeting is typically led by the author of the work product
- Scribe is mandatory
- Use of checklists is optional
- May take the form of scenarios, dry runs, or simulations
- Potential defect logs and review reports are produced
- May vary in practice from quite informal to very formal
Walkthrough
