New Software engineering Interview Preparation Guide

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According to IEEE, Integration Testing is An orderly progression of testing in which software elements, hardware elements, or both are combined and tested, to evaluate their interactions, until the entire system has been integrated. It Test against system design and Focuses on communication between modules start with one module, then add incrementally. Various Types of Integration Testing are: * big bang approach - Integrate Everything at once * top-down approach - Keep on breaking the system in parts one by one and than test each part. * bottom-up approach - Test the small parts first and than keep on integrating the system and keep on testing the bigger module of it. * mixed approach - Done by help of stubs.

IEEE Defines it as The process of testing an integrated hardware and software system to verify that the system meets its specified requirements. It is tested against system specification. May test manual procedures, restart and recovery, user interface, stress, performance. In System Testing, real data is used and sometimes users participations is also used.

Regression Testing accdoing to IEEE is "selective retesting of a system or component to verify that modifications have not caused unintended effects". It is repetition of tests intended to show that the software's behavior is unchanged, except insofar as required. It Can be done at each test level.

Probably one term which you must be aware of as we often hears this software is in Alpha phase and in Beta phase. Here Testing is done by representative set of potential users for trial use. Please Note - in-house (alpha testing) - external (beta testing).

This Question is often asked in Microsoft of from any other company who is looking to hire you for testing work. A test case will have 5 section.

It is used to Verify whether the build is ready for feature/requirement based testing).

It is used in verifying software restart capabilities after a "disaster".

It is ued toverify proper controls have been designed.

It evaluate the Human Computer Interface. Verifies for ease of use by end-users. Verifies ease of learning the software, including user documentation. Checks how effectively the software functions in supporting user tasks. Checks the ability to recover from user errors.

It is Used when software meant for different types of users. It also check that whether the software performs for all users.

It is verifying that the software meets the specified performance requirements (response time, volume.

Testing conducted to determine whether or not a system satisfies its acceptance criteria and to enable the customer to determine whether or not to accept the system. It is Done against requirements and is done by actual users.

It checks that the functional specifications are correctly implemented. Can also check if Non Funcctional behavior is as per expectations.

We impose abnormal input to stress the capabilities of the software. Input data volume, input data rate, processing time, utilization of memory, etc. are tested beyond the designed capacity.

The Tools used in Unit Testing are debuggers, tracers and is Done by Programmers. Unit testing verifies the functioning in isolation of software pieces which are separately testable.

System testing conducted once again according to hardware configuration requirements. Installation procedures may also be verified.

The steps involved are
Planning
Analysis
Design
coding
testing.
After testing maintenance of the product in also involved.

Software Requirements are Descriptions and specifications of a system–A requirementis a condition or capability to which the system must conform and Define. A system is designed with certain functionality in mind and to ome up with that functionality and its specification right at the beginning is Requirement Engineering. Requirements Engineering–Eliciting, organizing, and documenting the requirements of the system–The process of establishing the services that the customer requires from a system and the constraints under which it operates and is developed Software requirements should be •Clear
•complete
•Unambiguous
•Quantitative

Functional Requirements are the Expected functionality or services from the system.
Non - Functional Requirements are System property and constraints. Now Constraints can be on requirements itself. Some examples are of Response time, 24X7 availability of the system etc.

SRS stands for Software Requirement Specification.
It establishes the basis for agreement between customers and contractors or suppliers on what the software product is expected to do, as well as what it is not expected to do.
Some of the features of SRS are -
• It sets permits a rigorous assessment of requirements before design can begin.
• It sets the basis for software design, test, deployment, training etc. It also sets pre-requisite for a good design though it is not enough.
• It sets basis for software enhancement and maintenance.
• It sets Basis for Project plans like Scheduling and Estimation.

What is Testing in Software Engineering
Testing is running the program(or product) under various circumstances and conditions to find errors and bugs in it. This is important as releasing a faulty product will not only cause serious problems to the end user, it will also harm the companies reputation. There are various kind of Testing conditions and which one to use depends on type of product.
Types of Testing in Software Engineering
As per Test Target, there is * Unit Testing * Integration Testing * System Testing As per Test Objective, there is * User Acceptance Testing * Installation Testing * Functional * Alpha / Beta testing * Regression * Performance * Stress * Usability * Configuration * Smoke (Sanity Test) Let's see them one by one -

RUP stands for Rational Unified Process
It deals with -
• Iterative software development process.
• Visual Modeling of Systems
• Quality Management
• Change Control Management
• Deals with the role, the activity, and the artifact
• For managing OO Software Development
Some Features of RUP are -
• Online Repository of Process Information and Description
• Templates for all major artifacts, including:
– Requirements tracking (RequisitePro templates)
– Use Cases (Word Templates )
– Project Management (Project Templates)
• Process Manuals describing key processes
PSP stands for Personal Software Process
PSP Objectives are -
– To introduce individuals to a process-based approach to developing software
– To show individuals how to measure, estimate, schedule, and track their work
– To show individuals how to improve the quality of their programs
– In general PSP improves quality and productivity
- The time saved in testing because of better quality reduces time across the project by 20-40%
Advantage of PSP -
– To manage your work & assess/build your talents/skills
– To plan better
– To track your performance precisely
– To measure the quality of your software products

What is SDLC
A software cycle deals with various parts and phases from planning to testing and deploying. All these activities are carried out in different ways, as per the needs. Each way is known as a Software Development Lifecycle Model (SDLC).
Some SDLC models
* The Linear model (Waterfall)
- Separate and distinct phases of specification and development
- All activities in linear fashion
- Next phase starts only when first one is complete
* Evolutionary development
- Specification and development are interleaved (Spiral,incremental,prototype based,Rapid Application development)
- Incremental Model (Waterfall in iteration)
- RAD(Rapid Application Development) - Focus is on developing quality product in less time
- Spiral Model - We start from smaller module and keeps on building it like a spiral. It is also called Component based development.
* Formal systems development
- A mathematical system model is formally transformed to an implementation
* Agile Methods
- Inducing flexibility into development
* Reuse-based development
- The system is assembled from existing components

Object Oriented Design Tools - Rational Rose, Rhapsody, Telelogic Tau G2
UI Design Tools - Rapid/Paper prototypes, Simple
SUMI (Software Usability Measurement Inventory ) - It will tell you how your product compares to this standardization base: whether you are about average for the market, below, or above.

Design Patterns are simple and elegant solutions of commonly occuring problems in software design. Design Patterns make it easier to reuse successful designs and architectures of expereinced and Professional Designers.
There are three types of Patterns -
1. Creational - Concerned with creation of objects
2. Structural - Concerned with composition of classes or objects
3. Behavioral - characterize the ways in which classes and objects interact and distribute responsibility.