Software Quality Assurance Questions and Answers

Answer: B

The reliability subcharacteristics are (i), (ii) and (iv).

ISO 9126 defines six quality characteristics. Reliability, the capability of software to maintain its level of performance under stated conditions, has the subcharacteristics maturity (freedom from failures caused by faults), fault tolerance (keeping a level of performance despite faults) and recoverability (re-establishing performance and data after a failure), plus reliability compliance.

Suitability is a subcharacteristic of functionality, whether the software provides an appropriate set of functions for the tasks, so options including (iii) are wrong.

Answer: C

The CMM maturity levels measure the capabilities of processes, the third option.

The Capability Maturity Model grades an organisation's software process on five maturity levels: Initial, Repeatable, Defined, Managed and Optimizing. Each level describes how capable and how disciplined the organisation's processes are, that is, how predictably they produce the expected result. What the levels rate is therefore the process, not the software it yields.

'Quality of product' is wrong because CMM does not inspect the product: a mature process raises the likelihood of quality but the model rates the process. 'Quantity of modules' has no connection with the model. 'Process maturity' is the name of the scale itself, which only repeats the phrase 'maturity levels' in the stem and does not say what is measured.

Because the fourth option is a loose restatement rather than a wrong statement, the official key's choice of the more informative option, process capability, is the one to give in the examination.

Answer: C

McCall's product transition factors include (ii) and (iv): portability and reusability.

McCall's quality model groups factors under three headings. Product operation: correctness, reliability, efficiency, integrity, usability. Product revision: maintainability, flexibility, testability. Product transition: portability, reusability, interoperability.

Reliability is a product operation factor and testability a product revision factor, so every option containing (i) or (iii) is wrong.

Answer: D

Statements (ii) and (iii) are not true, so the answer is (ii) and (iii).

Quality assurance is process-oriented and proactive: it aims to prevent defects (i) by defining and improving the processes used across the whole development life cycle (iv). Both of those statements are true.

Statement (ii) is false because QA is preventive, not reactive; finding defects after the product is built is the reactive work of quality control. Statement (iii) is also false: validating the quality of the product, through testing and inspection, is quality control's job, while QA manages the process. Options containing (i) or (iv) are therefore wrong.

Answer: B

The correct path is initial, repeatable, defined, managed, optimizing.

1. Initial: the process is ad hoc and chaotic.
2. Repeatable: basic project management lets earlier successes be repeated.
3. Defined: the process is documented and standardised across the organisation.
4. Managed: the process and products are measured and controlled quantitatively.
5. Optimizing: continuous process improvement through feedback and innovation.

Options A and C put 'defined' before 'repeatable', and D puts 'managed' before 'defined'; each breaks the order of the five SEI CMM levels.

Answer: C

The activity is quality control.

Sommerville divides quality management into quality assurance, which establishes the framework of organisational procedures and standards, quality planning, which selects the procedures and standards for a particular project, and quality control, which ensures that the development team has followed the project's quality procedures and standards.

So assurance and planning set the procedures, while control checks that they were followed. 'Quality check' is not one of the defined activities.

Answer: A

The code or document is presented by the reader.

In a formal inspection, the roles include the author or owner, the inspectors, the reader, the scribe and the chair or moderator. The reader presents the code or document at the meeting, paraphrasing it, while the inspectors look for defects.

The author fixes the problems found, the inspectors find them, and the moderator manages the process and reports the results.

Answer: B

Quality management is structured into three main activities.

For large systems, software quality management comprises quality assurance (setting up organisational procedures and standards), quality planning (selecting the procedures and standards for a particular project) and quality control (checking that the project follows them).

So two leaves one activity out, and four or five add activities that are not among the three principal ones.