SOFTWARE ENGINEERING TOPICS COVERED

SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
[Selected Topics (BUT NOT LIMITED TO) for Evaluation Exam to be held on ……………… ]

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION TO SOFTWARE ENGINEERING

‡ What is Software and Software Engineering? Compare the characteristics of Hardware and Software.
Present the differences between hardware and software failure curve.
‡ Present broad Categories of Computer Software.
‡ Analyze the quality of legacy software. Present Software Myths from the view of various players.

CHAPTER 2: A GENERIC VIEW OF PROCESS

‡ Which should be focused “Product” or “Process”? Why? What is generic software process
Framework?
‡ Define Engineering and Software Engineering. “Software is a layered technology”- Discuss.
‡ What is meant by Umbrella Activities? Present the indications of various levels of CMMI Model.
‡ Point the process areas required to achieve maturity level.
‡ What is process assessment? Present the relation between process and methods applied for
assessment and improvement.

CHAPTER 3: PROCESS MODELS

‡ Discuss about Waterfall Model. What are the limitations/problems with implementing Waterfall
Model?
‡ What is Incremental Model? Present its advantages over Waterfall Model.
‡ Describe Rapid Application Development (RAD) Process Model. Compare RAD model with
incremental model.
‡ Describe one Evolutionary/Iterative process model (Prototyping Model / Spiral Model / Concurrent
Development Model).
‡ “Regardless of the manner in which it is applied, the prototyping paradigm assists the software
engineers and customer to better understand what is to be built when the requirements are fuzzy”-
Justify the comment for Prototyping model.
‡ What is Unified Process Model? Define Use Case Analysis.
‡ Present the major work products produced for each unified process phase.

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SOFTWARE ENGINEERING TOPICS COVERED

CHAPTER 4: AN AGILE VIEW OF PROCESS

‡ What is Agility and an Agile Process? Describe the principles of Agility.
‡ What is Extreme Programming (XP)? Present the key XP activities.
‡ What is meant by Adaptive Software Development? Explain Dynamic Systems Development Method.
‡ Present consistent Scrum Principles with Agile manifesto.

CHAPTER 5: SOFTWARE ENGINEERING PRACTICE

‡ What are the core principles of Software Engineering Practice?
‡ What are the keys for W5HH Principle?
‡ Present the Coding Principles and Concepts for Software Engineering.

CHAPTER 6: SYSTEM ENGINEERING

‡ Define System Engineering. What is System Modeling? What are the considerable restraining factors
to construct a system model?

CHAPTER 7: REQUIREMENT ENGINEERING

‡ Define Requirement Engineering. Briefly present the tasks/functions of Requirement Engineering.
‡ What is Collaborative Requirement Gathering?
‡ What are the questions answered by a use-case?

CHAPTER 8: BUILDING THE ANALYSIS MODEL

‡ What is Data Modeling? Define Data Modeling and Data Attribute.

CHAPTER 9: DESIGN ENGINEERING

‡ What are the three characteristics that serve as a guide for the evaluation of a good design?
Present the Quality guidelines.
‡ Explain Quality Attributes.
‡ Explain the characteristics of Well Formed Design.

CHAPTER 13: TESTING STRATEGIES

‡ What is Software Testing? What are the generic characteristics of Software Testing Strategies?
‡ Illustrate the Strategic issues for Successful Software Testing Strategy.
‡ What is Unit Testing? Present the Unit Test Considerations.
‡ Describe Unit Testing and Integration testing.
‡ Compare and contrast Top-Down-Integration approach and Bottom-Up-Integration approach.

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SOFTWARE ENGINEERING TOPICS COVERED

‡ Describe Regression Testing and Smoke testing. What are the benefits of Smoke Testing? What is
Stress Testing?
‡ What are the attributes of a good test? Write short notes on White-Box-Testing and Black-Box-
Testing.
‡ Explain Loop Testing, Validation Testing, Alpha-Beta Testing?
‡ What are the System Testing Strategies available? Discuss each of them.
‡ What is Debugging process? Present the characteristics of bugs.
‡ What is Debugging Approach? Discuss Debugging process.

CHAPTER 14: TESTING TACTICS

‡ Describe the characteristics/aspects of Software Test?
‡ Explain White-Box testing and Black-Box Testing in details. What are the basic differences between
White-Box testing and Black-Box Testing?
‡ Explain Independent Program paths by illustrating Flow Graph Notations. With an example flow-
graph discuss Cyclomatic Complexity and its alternate calculation process.
‡ Discuss Control Structure Testing (Condition Testing, Data Flow Testing, Loop Testing).
‡ What are the guidelines for Boundary Value Analysis?
‡ Present the Test-Case design methods for Real Time Systems.

CHAPTER 15: PRODUCT METRICS

‡ Define Software Quality. What are the quality factors for Software? Preset ISO-9126 Quality Factors.
‡ What are the attributes of Web-Applications? Categorize Web Applications.
‡ Discuss Function based Metrics for Analysis Model. How Function Point is calculated?
‡ Discuss about the metrics for object oriented design.

CHAPTER 16: WEB ENGINEERING

‡ What are the attributes for Web-Apps? Present the categories of Web-Application.
‡ Discuss about Web Engineering Methods.
‡ Illustrate the Best Practices of Web Engineering..

CHAPTER 17: INITIATING A WEB APP PROJECT

‡ Who are the key Players of a Web - Engineering Team?
‡ What are the pre-steps for Outsourcing? Present the Web App Planning for In-House Web
Engineering.
‡ Present various worst practices for Web App Project.
‡ Compare In-house Web-App development versus Outsourcing.

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SOFTWARE ENGINEERING TOPICS COVERED

CHAPTER 19: DESIGN FOR WEB APPS

‡ Discuss the design goals for Web Apps. What is Web Engineering Design Pyramid?
‡ Briefly present the Interface Design principles and Guidelines for Web-Apps.
‡ Present the tasks representing a rudimentary/elementary work flow for WebApp Interface Design.

CHAPTER 21: PROJECT MANAGEMENT

‡ Discuss the 4P’s of Management Spectrum. Who are the stakeholders of a software project?
‡ Present MOI Model of Leadership with characteristics of effective project manager.
‡ What are the considerations in planning the structure/span of Software Engineering teams?
‡ Discuss and Compare Organizational Paradigms for Software Engineering Teams.
‡ Which are the signs that indicate that an information system project is in jeopardy?
‡ Illustrate the “Common Sense Approach” for avoiding jeopardy in Software Projects.
‡ Describe the W5HH Principle.

CHAPTER 22: METRICS FOR PROCESS AND PROJECTS

‡ What is meant by Process and Product Metrics?
‡ What are the typical Size Oriented Metrics for Software Measurement? What are meant by Defect
and Error?
‡ Discuss Object oriented metrics.
‡ Enunciate Web Engineering Project Metrics.
‡ How Software Quality may be ensured?
‡ What is Defect Removal Efficiency? Present the steps for establishing a goal-driven software metric
program.

CHAPTER 23: ESTIMATION

‡ Present a set of easily collected measures for small organization.
‡ Discuss Problem based Estimation, LOC Based Estimation, FP based Estimation.
‡ What is meant by empirical estimation model? Write short notes on CoCoMo-II Model.
‡ Explain Software Equation. Present an estimation approach for Object Oriented Projects.

CHAPTER 24: PROJECT SCHEDULING

‡ What is Project Scheduling? Present the basic principles/guidelines for Software Project Scheduling.
‡ Describe the relationship between effort and delivery time.
‡ How to track the progress of an Object Oriented Project.

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SOFTWARE ENGINEERING TOPICS COVERED

CHAPTER 25: RISK MANAGEMENT

‡ What is Risk and Risk Management? Compare Reactive and Proactive Risk Management.
‡ Define Software Risk. What are the main categories of Risks associated with Software Development?
‡ Present Generic Sub-Categories of Risks. Define Risk Projection and Risk Refinement.
‡ Present a check-list for Assessing Overall Project Risk. What is Risk Table?
‡ Briefly discuss about Risk Mitigation, Monitoring and Monitoring (RMMM).

CHAPTER 26: QUALITY MANAGEMENT

‡ Define Software Quality and Software Quality Assurance. Describe various types of cost of quality.
‡ What are the Review Guidelines for Software Quality Assurance?
‡ What is Statistical Software Quality Assurance? What are the generic categories or scopes of error?
‡ Present the Six Sigma Strategy for Software Engineering.
‡ What is SQA Plan? Write short notes on ISO – 9000 Quality Standards.

CHAPTER 26: QUALITY MANAGEMENT

‡ What are Software Configuration Management (SCM) and SCM Process? What is Version Control?
‡ What is Repository? Present the roles performed/precipitated of Repository.
‡ Describe the features of SCM Software Configuration Management.
‡ Write short notes on Concurrent Version System.
‡ What is Software Configuration Audit?

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