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Monash University

FIT5171 System validation and verification, quality and standards - Semester 1, 2012

This unit covers the core software engineering disciplines concerned with managing and delivering quality software. Topics include processes, tools and techniques for system validation and verification, including major commercial tools used in industry. It shows how to predict, analyse and control defects in complex software systems. Inspection and testing methodologies, analysis of artefacts, robustness, performance analysis configuration management, quality assurance plan and standards including ISO9000/AS39000, compliance, assessment, certification issues are covered.

Mode of Delivery

Clayton (Day)

Contact Hours

2 hrs lectures/wk, 1 hr tutorial/wk

Workload

Estimated weekly commitment needed for the unit, including classes, reading, assessment, time needed for computer access, and other activities:

  • two-hour lecture
  • one-hour tutorial
  • one-hour unsupervised lab/tute activity in the MUSE Lab to get familiarised with tools, work on assignments, self study, etc.
  • a minimum of 2-3 hours of personal study per one hour of contact time in order to satisfy the reading and assignment expectations.
  • You will need to allocate up to 5 hours per week in some weeks, for use of a computer, including reading research papers for an assignment and lab discussions with class members.

Unit Relationships

Prohibitions

CSE4431, FIT4004

Prerequisites

Recommended knowledge: programming in C, C++ and Java; OOSE, Analysis, Design and Programming; OO Method - UML notation, method and SE process; Project Management.

Chief Examiner

Campus Lecturer

Clayton

Yuan-Fang Li

Tutors

Clayton

Nabeel Mohammed

Academic Overview

Outcomes

At the completion of this unit students will:
  • have knowledge and understanding of the role of validation & verification methods in the system life cycle;
  • have gained practical experience in using commercial validation tools to help detect software system defects;
  • appreciate how assertion mechanisms impact reasoning;
  • be able to analyse and control defects in complex systems;
  • have an understanding of inspection & testing methods, configuration management, performance, and quality standards issues.

Graduate Attributes

Monash prepares its graduates to be:
  1. responsible and effective global citizens who:
    1. engage in an internationalised world
    2. exhibit cross-cultural competence
    3. demonstrate ethical values
  2. critical and creative scholars who:
    1. produce innovative solutions to problems
    2. apply research skills to a range of challenges
    3. communicate perceptively and effectively

Assessment Summary

In-semester assessment: 50%; Examination (2 hours): 50%

Assessment Task Value Due Date
Unit, Integration, System and Continuous testing - Phase 1 15% Week 4
Unit, Integration, System and Continuous testing - Phase 2 15% Week 8
Unit, Integration, System and Continuous testing - Phase 3 20% Week 12
Examination 1 50% To be advised

Teaching Approach

Lecture and tutorials or problem classes
This teaching and learning approach provides facilitated learning, practical exploration and peer learning.

Feedback

Our feedback to You

Types of feedback you can expect to receive in this unit are:
  • Informal feedback on progress in labs/tutes
  • Solutions to tutes, labs and assignments

Your feedback to Us

Monash is committed to excellence in education and regularly seeks feedback from students, employers and staff. One of the key formal ways students have to provide feedback is through SETU, Student Evaluation of Teacher and Unit. The University's student evaluation policy requires that every unit is evaluated each year. Students are strongly encouraged to complete the surveys. The feedback is anonymous and provides the Faculty with evidence of aspects that students are satisfied and areas for improvement.

For more information on Monash's educational strategy, and on student evaluations, see:
http://www.monash.edu.au/about/monash-directions/directions.html
http://www.policy.monash.edu/policy-bank/academic/education/quality/student-evaluation-policy.html

Previous Student Evaluations of this unit

If you wish to view how previous students rated this unit, please go to
https://emuapps.monash.edu.au/unitevaluations/index.jsp

Required Resources

Please check with your lecturer before purchasing any Required Resources. Prescribed texts are available for you to borrow in the library, and prescribed software is available in student labs.

The MUSE Lab in Bldg 26/G13 is the lab used for this unit. It has all the software available in standard student labs and is also equipped with:

  • Tools for Software testing such as JUnit 4.x (latest vers)
  • Java build management Apache Maven 2.x 
  • Tools for version control, continuous testing and integration such as Hudson and Subversion to run on Windows machines
  • Open source Eclipse or Commercial Java IDE IntelliJ IDEA (free site licence available)
  • Additional software may be installed in a particular year based on the assignment requirement - such as AspectJ in 2007

Software may be:

  • Downloaded from:
    • http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/
    • http://www.jetbrains.com/idea/download/
    • http://tortoisesvn.net/downloads.html
    • http://maven.apache.org/download.html
  • Purchased at academic prices at good software retailers.

Recommended Resources

Students are encouraged to use their own laptops to work on project assignments. All required software can be downloaded and installed onto personal laptops.

Recommended text(s)

Jorgensen, Paul C. (2008). Software Testing, A Craftsman's Approach. (Third Edition) Auerbach Publications.

Unit Schedule

Week Activities Assessment
0   No formal assessment or activities are undertaken in week 0
1 Overview, testing fundamentals  
2 Mathematics for software testing & quality: set theory, graph theory, etc.  
3 Black-box testing  
4 White-box testing I Unit, Integration, System and Continuous testing - Phase 1 due Week 4
5 White-box testing II  
6 Component testing  
7 Software quality & metrics  
8 System testing Unit, Integration, System and Continuous testing - Phase 2 due Week 8
9 Object-oriented testing  
10 Mutation testing  
11 Testing vs model checking vs theorem proving  
12 Revision Unit, Integration, System and Continuous testing - Phase 3 due Week 12
  SWOT VAC No formal assessment is undertaken SWOT VAC
  Examination period LINK to Assessment Policy: http://policy.monash.edu.au/policy-bank/
academic/education/assessment/
assessment-in-coursework-policy.html

*Unit Schedule details will be maintained and communicated to you via your MUSO (Blackboard or Moodle) learning system.

Assessment Requirements

Assessment Policy

Faculty Policy - Unit Assessment Hurdles (http://www.infotech.monash.edu.au/resources/staff/edgov/policies/assessment-examinations/unit-assessment-hurdles.html)

Assessment Tasks

Hurdle Requirements

Tutorials run from week 2 through to week 12. Questions related to lectures, assignment demos and literature reading will be conducted in tutorials. 

To encourage active participation a hurdle requirement has been added for tutorials. The grades for this hurdle are "pass" and "fail". Each tutorial carries one tick; and to pass this hurdle a student must earn at least five ticks (out of eleven). To earn a tick a student must attend the tutorial and participate in the discussions. 

Participation

  • Assessment task 1
    Title:
    Unit, Integration, System and Continuous testing - Phase 1
    Description:
    The first phase of the semester-long project consists of two parts:
    • System setup, and
    • Unit testing of the various component classes in the code base provided and extended by you.
    Weighting:
    15%
    Criteria for assessment:

    This assignment is evaluated on the correctness and completeness of the work:

    • System setup, and
      • Successful setup of the working environment on personal laptops, and
      • Successful connection to the integration server.
    • Unit testing
      • Developing functionality according to a given specification,
      • Successfully invoking automated builds on the server, and
      • Development of non-trivial unit tests appropriate for specified system functionality.

    No written or file submission is required for this assessment. It will be based only on a demo in the lab and answering queries & during an interview.

    Due date:
    Week 4
  • Assessment task 2
    Title:
    Unit, Integration, System and Continuous testing - Phase 2
    Description:
    The second phase of the semester-long project focuses on integration testing.

    You will continue to develop the system based on a given specification and write unit tests and integration tests for the newly developed components. Such tests will also need to be automatically executed on the continuous integration server.
    Weighting:
    15%
    Criteria for assessment:

    The assignment will be assessed by its correctness and completeness. 

    • Sufficient functionality in the different layers of the system.
    • Sufficient testing adequacy of the developed functionality.

     No written or file submission is required for this assessment. It will be based only on a demo in the lab and answering queries & during an interview.

    Due date:
    Week 8
  • Assessment task 3
    Title:
    Unit, Integration, System and Continuous testing - Phase 3
    Description:
    The third phase of the semester-long project focuses on system testing.

    You will continue to develop the system based on a given specification and write unit tests, integration tests and system tests for the newly developed components. Such tests will also need to be automatically executed on the continuous integration server.
    Weighting:
    20%
    Criteria for assessment:

    The assignment will be assessed by its correctness and completeness. 

    •  Sufficient functionality of the whole system (backend and the Web frontend).
    • Sufficient testing adequacy of the components and the system.

    No written or file submission is required for this assessment. It will be based only on a demo in the lab and answering queries & during an interview.

    Due date:
    Week 12

Examinations

  • Examination 1
    Weighting:
    50%
    Length:
    2 hours
    Type (open/closed book):
    Open book
    Electronic devices allowed in the exam:
    None

Assignment submission

It is a University requirement (http://www.policy.monash.edu/policy-bank/academic/education/conduct/plagiarism-procedures.html) for students to submit an assignment coversheet for each assessment item. Faculty Assignment coversheets can be found at http://www.infotech.monash.edu.au/resources/student/forms/. Please check with your Lecturer on the submission method for your assignment coversheet (e.g. attach a file to the online assignment submission, hand-in a hard copy, or use an online quiz).

Online submission

If Electronic Submission has been approved for your unit, please submit your work via the VLE site for this unit, which you can access via links in the my.monash portal.

Extensions and penalties

Returning assignments

Other Information

Policies

Student services

The University provides many different kinds of support services for you. Contact your tutor if you need advice and see the range of services available at www.monash.edu.au/students. For Sunway see http://www.monash.edu.my/Student-services, and for South Africa see http://www.monash.ac.za/current/

The Monash University Library provides a range of services and resources that enable you to save time and be more effective in your learning and research. Go to http://www.lib.monash.edu.au or the library tab in my.monash portal for more information. At Sunway, visit the Library and Learning Commons at http://www.lib.monash.edu.my/. At South Africa visit http://www.lib.monash.ac.za/.

Academic support services may be available for students who have a disability or medical condition. Registration with the Disability Liaison Unit is required. Further information is available as follows:

  • Website: http://monash.edu/equity-diversity/disability/index.html;
  • Email: dlu@monash.edu
  • Drop In: Equity and Diversity Centre, Level 1 Gallery Building (Building 55), Monash University, Clayton Campus, or Student Community Services Department, Level 2, Building 2, Monash University, Sunway Campus
  • Telephone: 03 9905 5704, or contact the Student Advisor, Student Commuity Services at 03 55146018 at Sunway

Reading list

  • Jorgensen, Paul C. (2008), Software Testing, A Craftsman's Approach, 3rd edition, Auerbach Publications.
  • M Pezze and M Young (2007), Software Testing and Analysis, Wiley Publ.
  • Apt, K.R and Olderog, E.R (1991) Verification of Sequential and Concurrent Programs, Springer-Verlag.
  • Dahl, O-J (1992) Verifiable Programming, Prentice Hall.
  • Deutsch, M.S (1982) Software Verification and Validation, Prentice Hall
  • Dorfman, M and Thayer, R.H (eds) (1990) Standards, Guidelines and Examples on Systems and Software Requirement Engineering, IEEE Computer Soc. Press
  • Ferdinand A.E (1993) Systems, Software, and Quality Engineering, Van Nostrand Reinhold. IEEE Standard for Software Quality Metrics Methodology, IEEE Publ. 1993
  • Lewis, R.O (1992) Independent Verification and Validation - A Life Cycle Engineering Process for Quality Software, John Wiley & Sons
  • Mazz, C.Et al. (1994) Software Engineering Standards, Prentice Hall
  • J F Peters and W Pedrycz (2000) Software Engineering: An Engineering Approach, J Wiley Publ
  • Robert V. Binder (1999) Testing Object-Oriented Systems: Models, Patterns, and Tools, Addison-Wesley
  • David A Sykes John D McGregor (2001) Practical Guide to Testing Object-Oriented Software, Addison-Wesley
  • Paul Jorgensen (Ed.) (2002), Software Testing: A Craftsman's Approach, Second Edition
  • Daniel J.Mosley, Bruce A. Posey (2002) Just Enough Software Test Automation, Addison-Wesley
  • Jerry Gao,  H S Tsao and Ye Wu (2003), Testing and Quality Assurance for Component-based Software, Artech House (ISBN 1-58053-480-5)
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