So try to make sure you include all of the departments that are going to be impacted by this project, including project managers, developers, operations, security, and key stakeholders. The next step is to understand the technical requirements of this project.
As you move on from the planning phase and continue to fill out the SOW, ask questions about the specifics around this project, such as:. Once your development team gets the answers to these questions, they can start to scope out technical requirements, testing terms, and decide on a technology stack.
As Steve Jobs famously said:. Alternatively, you might decide you need more user feedback and do a design sprint to quickly get a feature or idea in front of your users. However you choose to tackle it, this stage helps your team and your client—whether a customer or stakeholder —validate ideas and get valuable feedback before you commit your ideas to code. This could mean releasing the product to a small group of beta testers or using UX tools to track how users interact with it.
In most companies, this step should be pretty much automated using a continuous deployment model or Application Release Automation ARA tool. The ending of one phase is just the beginning of another, and that goes for post-launch as well.
Requirements and customer needs are always evolving. Not to mention the basic upkeep and maintenance of your application or software to ensure uptime and customer satisfaction. All of these requests need to flow back into your product backlog of task list so they can be prioritized and become part of your product roadmap. But how you check them, when, and in what order is up to you. Over the years, a number of different software development processes have been formalized to tackle more and more complex projects.
But which one is right for you? Ultimately, which process you use will come down to your goals, the size of the project and your team, and other factors. To help you decide, here are 5 of the best software development processes with pros and cons for each. In its most basic form, you can think of the Waterfall method as following each step of the SDLC in sequence—you have to finish each one sequentially before moving on. However, in most practical applications the phases overlap slightly, with feedback and information being passed between them.
Due to its rigid structure and big up-front planning time, the Waterfall software development process works best when your goals, requirements, and technology stack are unlikely to radically change during the development process such as during shorter one-off projects. In more practical terms, the Waterfall process is best suited for larger organizations like government agencies that require sign-offs and documentation on all requirements and scope before a project starts.
And because of this, unless your scope is tightly written, you might end up committing to the wrong path without knowing it until launch day. The Agile software development process and its most popular methodology, Scrum opt for an iterative and dynamic approach to development. This allows tighter feedback loops throughout the software development process so you can adapt and react to real customer needs.
The purpose of these actions is to improve the software development process, introducing standards of quality for preventing errors and bugs in the product. Software quality control SQC is the part of quality management that includes a set of activities focused on fulfilling quality requirements.
QC is about product-oriented activities that certify software products for their quality before release. The process of software quality control is governed by software quality assurance. Testing is the basic activity aimed at detecting and solving technical issues in the software source code and assessing the overall product usability, performance, security, and compatibility.
This article will discuss the best practices of how to improve the software testing process and to increase the quality of your software products. Test processes should be well-planned, defined, and documented. Good documentation is the tool that builds efficient communication within the software team. So, effective planning entails creation of quality and test plans for a project. A test policy is the most high-level document that is created at the organizational level.
It also explains how testing will be conducted and how a company measures test effectiveness and success. A quality management plan is a document that defines an acceptable level of product quality and describes how the project will achieve this level. The main goal of this plan is to support project managers and help organize the process by defining roles, responsibilities, and quality standards to be achieved. A test strategy is a more specific product-level document that derives from the Business Requirements Specification document.
Usually, a project manager or a business analyst creates a test strategy to define software testing approaches used to achieve testing objectives. In a small project, the test strategy is part of a test plan.
But, for a larger project, the PM has to create a test strategy as a separate, static document from which each test plan can be further developed. A test plan is a document that describes what to test, when to test, how to test, and who will do the tests. It also describes the testing scope and activities. The test plan includes the objectives of the tests to be run and helps control the risks. It also should define the roles of every team member so that everyone is clear about what is required.
According to the IEEE standard , a test plan document should contain the following information:. Make your test plan brief. Avoid repetition or irrelevance. It should contain only the relevant information. Be specific. Include all details, e. Update a test plan. Share a test plan with your stakeholders. It will give them information about your testing processes.
The quality of your test plan will represent the quality of the testing your team will perform. Preparation of effective test cases is an integral part of software testing improvements. The standard test case includes the following information:. Identify testable requirements. Identify the scope and purpose of testing before starting the test process.
Customer requirement. The specialist who writes the test case must have a good understanding of the features and user requirements. Write on time. The best time to write test cases is the early requirement analysis and design phases. That way QA specialists can understand whether all requirements are testable or not. Test cases should be simple and easy to understand. Every test case should include only the necessary and relevant steps.
No matter how many times and by whom it will be used, a test case must have a single expected result rather than multiple expected results. Unique test cases. Each test case must have a unique name. This will help classify, track, and review test cases at later stages. Test cases should be maintainable. If requirements change, a tester must be able to adjust a test case. Implementation of test-oriented management approaches is a good way to improve the quality of software.
One of the ways to achieve this is by using extreme programming XP — a software development methodology that aims to produce higher quality software with the ability to adapt to changing requirements. Check this article to learn more about extreme programming practices, principles, and values. Test-driven development TDD is a software development process in which tests are written before any implementation of the code. TDD has a test-first approach based on the repetition of a very short development cycle.
According to it, each new feature begins with writing a test. This test case will initially fail. The next step will be to write the code focusing on functionality to get that test passed. After these steps are completed, a developer refactors the code to pass all the tests. High quality.
The quality of TDD-based products is usually much higher than that achieved with other methods. Optimization of development costs. The cost of debugging at later stages is minimized as tests are run from the beginning of the design cycle. Simplification of code. Engineers invest more effort in aligning code requirements to particular tests. Positive effects on productivity.
The TDD approach provides quick feedback on introducing a bug and fixing it. A developer notices a bug as soon as the test fails and then fixes it to pass the test.
Executable documentation. Use-cases are written as tests and other developers can view the tests as examples of how the code is supposed to work. Pair programming is also an extreme programming technique.
This development approach requires two engineers working in tandem at a single computer. One of them the Driver writes a code while the other one the Navigator watches and makes suggestions throughout the process. These roles can be swapped at any time.
Two developers working at a single computer will produce software with a significantly higher quality. The increased code quality can reduce the debugging and refactoring cost of the project in the long run.
High code quality. Fewer mistakes and bugs are introduced into the code as problems are caught before or during the code writing. Better knowledge sharing among team members. You will have more people who know how the product works. In this case, if one of the pairs leaves the company, there will be someone remaining who is experienced with the code. This practice can also be applied to the testing process.
The pair testing technique combines the knowledge and experience of two testers in a kind of brainstorming session that can lead to increased productivity. We have already described a test-driven programming practice inside an extreme programming framework. A shift-left testing approach reflects this idea and suggests conducting testing activities from the very beginning of the development process instead of making it a final step as traditional methodologies typically suggest.
Planning a testing strategy early. Pushing testing procedures off until the last week can create bottlenecks and slow down progress. So, consider planning a testing schedule from the early stages of the development process to detect and fix bugs and malfunctions as soon as possible.
Reviewing requirements. It can mean engaging testers in communication with customers and other stakeholders with the purpose of reviewing and analyzing requirements. Testing often. Doing smaller tests more frequently throughout the development stages and creating a continuous feedback flow allows for immediate validation and improvement of the system.
Automating tests. Implementing automated tests whenever possible and maximizing test coverage would also expedite and improve the testing process. Read on to learn more about test automation and continuous delivery practice. Prevention instead of reaction. Shifting left can also focus on problem prevention rather than fixing. For example, testers can pair with developers and contribute to the coding process or run tests before hitting the build.
Or, testers can join discussion sessions, ask questions, and provide rapid feedback to influence development decisions. Team collaboration. This Agile approach works best in cross-functional teams where members tightly collaborate and have broad skillsets as testers are involved in the development process and developers — in testing activities, creating a product with testability in mind.
It involves getting feedback from real end-users and improving the quality based on these reviews. A formal technical review FTR is an activity performed by software engineers to reveal functional and logical errors at the early stages.
An FTR is a group meeting at which attendants with certain roles ensure that developed software meets the predefined standards and requirements. The best time to run an FTR is when you have a mature product.
But it depends on the type of review. A typical FTR requires a team of engineers with specific roles as speakers, reviewers, or producers. At the end of each meeting, a review report should be prepared to answer the following questions:. A formal review or review meeting is a presentation given by the author of a product. The Team is utterly self-managing.
The Team can seek outside advice, help, information, and support during the Sprint. If the Team determines that it can address more Product Backlog during the Sprint than it selected during the Sprint planning meeting, it cannot select and add new items from the product backlog. If the Team feels itself unable to complete all of the committed Product Backlog during the Sprint, it can consult with the Product Owner on which items to remove from the current Sprint.
Show Answer Answer : If the Team determines that it can address more Product Backlog during the Sprint than it selected during the Sprint planning meeting, it cannot select and add new items from the product backlog. Requirement b. Enhancement c. Bug d. Lessons learnt and best practices of previous iteration b. Customer issues and complaints of previous iteration c. Only metrics and associated action items d. High, just enough b. High, detailed c. Low, detailed d. Low, just enough Show Answer Answer : High, just enough.
Share commitment, set direction and focus b. Only Identify obstacles c. Track progress Show Answer Answer : Share commitment, set direction and focus For Demo, the following mechanism can be used? Presentation c. Almost at the end of iteration b. At the mid of iteration c. It is continuous process d. Following a plan b. Following priority c. Following a schedule d. Read-write access b. Optional b. Trivial c. Story cards b. Reviews and Documents d.
Continuous Integration b. Pair programming c. Daily Standup Meeting d. Simplicity, Communication, Feedback, Courage and Respect b. Extreme Programming, Communication, Feedback and Courage c. Simplicity, Communication, Feedback and Cultural Sensitivity d. Design of Development b. Definition of Done c.
Actual Throughout Driven Development b. Automated Test Driven Development c. Acceptance Test Design Document d. Potential Scalable Product Increment b. Product Shippable Packaged Installed c. Product Shippable Planned Index d. FPP b. Time and Material c. Dependency b. Tools c. Story Points and Ideal Engineering Days c.
Story Points and Duration d. Customer complaints b. Improvement areas c. Action tracker d. Reviewed by Scrum Master b. Simple and Scalable c. Symbol, allegory b. May vary depending on the complexity of the project b. Is time boxed Show Answer Answer : May vary depending on the complexity of the project. Detailed requirements elicitation b.
Iteration zero c. Writing a unit test, then writing some code to pass the unit test. Then refactor and test again. About writing some tests to ensure that most of our code works c. Writing unit test and then doing some coding Show Answer Answer : Writing a unit test, then writing some code to pass the unit test. Design b. Code c. Consists of multiple use cases b. Can span iterations c. So that they share code whenever asked by customer b. To enforce them to work in isolation c.
Single team at single geography b. Multiple teams at single geography c. Single team at distributed geography d. Scrum of Scrum b.
Video conferencing c. Emails d. Iteration zero d. In one of the iteration: With actual effort of 60 person hours, it delivered 8 stories with cumulative 24 story points and slipped to deliver 2 story with 9 story points cumulative, there were 25 builds created out of which 15 passed.
In one of the iteration: With actual effort of 72 person hours, it delivered 6 stories with cumulative 36 story points and slipped to deliver 2 story with 9 story points, there were 30 builds created out of which 24 passed.
Instead of 5 iterations it has extend to 6 iterations. Strictly 5 c. Members, Scrum Masters b. Product owners, Scrum Masters c. Scrum Masters, Product owners d. Scrum Master b. Scrum of Scrum d. Planning c. Exploration to planning, iteration zero b. Exploration, planning c. Planning, iteration zero d. Silk Test b. Rational Robot c.
Visual Control Chart d. Team is mixed level experienced resources, customer defines the metrics to be tracked and manager is responsible for process adherence d. Video conferencing and live meetings b. Comprehensive requirements document c. Elaborate project release plan d. Descriptive design document Show Answer Answer : Video conferencing and live meetings If agile practices XP and Scrum combination are followed utmost possible by 4 teams in given scenarios.
Which one of them would require more tools support for communication and coordination. Collocated team of resources b. Remote working team of 15 resources c. Collocated team of 15 resources d.
Remote working team of resources Show Answer Answer : Remote working team of resources Select the right options. Delivery Capacity of the team in an iteration b.
Constant across different teams c. Is constant across iterations b. Can be variable across iterations Show Answer Answer : Can be variable across iterations Identify perceived disadvantages of Agile.
It can further lead to ever-lasting project. There is a risk of low motivation amongst the team. Elaboration b. Retrospective c. Design d. Person Hours c. A release burn down chart shows number of stories remaining in the project as of the start of the iteration b.
A release burn down chart shows number of tasks remaining in the project as of the start of the iteration c. Daily Standup Meeting b. Mid -Sprint Review of Product Backlog c. Test Driven Development d. The process of ensuring the completion of iteration backlog within the iteration b. The process of finalizing the features for the iteration c. The process of fixing the iteration end time d.
Gives the actual stories not implemented against planned in the iteration b. Process improvement framework b. Project team level b. Organization level c. Program level Show Answer Answer : Project team level Who is responsible for estimate against story cards during iteration planning?
Customer c. Agile Coach d. This statement is taken care by which of the following agile principles? Deliver working software frequently b. Simplicity is essential Show Answer Answer : Promote sustainable development Which of the following is false? Agile developers have three levels of planning — release, iteration and daily b.
Agile developers do not create any documents d. Documentation of requirements in customers terminology b. User manual d. Only after the system is moved to production b. Whenever and wherever possible c. Only once in the last iteration d. True b. False Show Answer Answer : False Triangulating is an estimation technique where in the estimation of a story is based on its relationship to one or more stories a. False Show Answer Answer : True. Skip to content Skip to blog sidebar.
Answer : User story should be written in business language. Answer : Developers are not responsible for participating in the iteration planning meeting. Answer : While one programmer codes the other reviews online. Answer : Keeps the design exactly suited for the current functionality of the system. Answer : Designing for the current iteration only. Answer : The trend of work remaining across time in a sprint, a release, or a product.
Answer : As a [user role], I want to [goal], so I can [benefit]. Answer : Infrastructure setup and engineering disciplines. Answer : Specific quick test that examines a little piece of code. Answer : Implies that code should work as intended and is maintainable in future by any developer.
Answer : Include unit tests as part of the build process. Schedule deviation is zero. Answer : Velocity is 0. Answer : Agile is all about working software with just enough documentation. Answer : For scheduling and creating the automated builds. Answer : Document major decision at the end of iteration. Answer : Delivery Capacity of the team in an iteration in terms of story point and actual effort. Answer : Developers are not responsible for estimating as a team.
Answer : Product owner gives the prioritized set of stories for the iteration. Answer : Ask the product owner to add the new request in the product backlog and inform that the changed requirement can be taken in the next sprint based on the priority. Answer : Code written in the previous iteration.
Answer : Write the test case before writing the code. Answer : Kills creativity in the software development. Answer : A large common working room with large table and enough chairs to provide ample seating space.
Answer : Software configuration management tool. Answer : Team size exceeds, distance and barriers between work locations increased. Answer : Just enough documentation required at the iteration level.
Answer : Both schedule buffers and feature buffers. Answer : Done all-the-time in each iteration. Answer : Enhancing the product with more features.
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