Software Engineering, Exam, August 10, 2000.

• Start by reading all the questions, to see if anything is unclear. I can be reached by phone, 018-4717606 or 070-4250334.

• Answers may be written in Swedish or English, or any reasonable mixture of those.

• Dictionaries may be used.

• For each question, I give its points and a maximal length of the answer. The optimal length is usually around half of this maximum.

• A checklist of common mistakes that cost points:
  • Answer all your questions. A bad answer never gives less points than no answer.
  • Read the question again after you have written the answer. Verify that you have actually answered the question. Verify that you answered all parts.
  • In particular, don't forget to give an example if that is requested, and make it a concrete one.
  • Avoid unclear or missing argumentation; risky words are 'of course', 'self-evident', 'better', 'wrong', ...
  • When a question asks you to compare two things A and B, make sure to highlight the contrasts: their differences. I do not want a full description of A and a full description of B, leaving it to me to find the differences.

• Good luck!

1. Describe briefly Boehms spiral model. Where do the activities of the waterfall model fit in? What has been added? (6 points, 1.5 page)

2. Describe various forms of traceability as part of the requirements engineering process. What is the purpose of each form? (6 points, 1.5 page)

3. In what ways can the use of a formal method for writing requirements be used later in the project? (3 points, 0.5 page)

4. Design
   1. What are the steps of designing a system?
   2. Why is there no hard border between requirements specification and design?
   3. How is the design process altered if many reusable components are available?
   (6 points, 1.5 page)

5. Discuss the concept of N-version programming. What is the idea behind it? What are the problems? (4 points, 1 page)

   Turn!

6. One way of meeting high reliability and/or safety requirements is to avoid certain programming constructs that are known to be error-prone. Name some of these constructs, and explain what errors they often introduce. (4 points, 1 page)

7. Give (at least) five different ways of testing. Explain the goal of the test, and how it is performed (don't be vague, I recommend using examples). (5 points, 2 pages)

8. Suppose that you are to develop a system that assists in the administration of a company, and makes it more effective. The company is medium-size (a few hundred employees) and it is not software related. List some of the kinds of problems that you would expect, and what you would do about them. (6 points, 1.5 page)

   The following questions should be answered only by those taking the 4- and 5-point course.

9. Describe the difference between defensive programming and design by contract. What are the arguments for/against these techniques? (3 points, 1 page)

10. Describe how software inspections are performed (4 points, 1.5 page)

11. What is required to obtain quality certification, or, in other words, what does it mean to adhere to a quality standard? How are these standards influenced by their roots in traditional manufacturing industry? (3 points, 1 page)