Software Engineering, Fall 2008

Assignment 4
To be submitted in class
Due Date: Wednesday, December 3rd in class
Instruction: This is an individual assignment. Answers should be your
own work, in your own words.
1.

Software projects are inevitably late and there is nothing

that can explain why.
(True/False)

2. (True/False) It is unethical to undertake a project that you know in

advance cannot be completed by the customer's deadline, unless
you inform the customer of the risk and establish a project plan that
can deliver the needed system incrementally
3.

Which
a.
b.
c.
d.

4.

(True/False) Doubling the size of your software project team is guaranteed to cut project
completion time in half.

5.

The software equation can be used to show that by extending the project deadline slightly
a. fewer people are required
b. you are guaranteed to meet the deadline
c. more lines of code can be produced
d. none of the above

6.

The 40-20-40 rule suggests that the least amount of development effort be spent on
a. estimation and planning
b. analysis and design
c. coding
d. testing

7.

A task is a collection of
a. engineering work tasks, milestones, work products
b. task assignments, cost estimates, metrics
c. milestones, deliverables, metrics
d. responsibilities, milestones, documents
For purposes of determining the major engineering tasks and distributing them on the
project time line, the project manger should assume that the process model used is
a. Linear
b. Sequential
c. Iterative evolutionary

8.

of the following is not one of the guiding principles of software project scheduling:
compartmentalization
market assessment
time allocation
effort validation

d. Any of the above

9.

(True/False) The only means accomplishing task refinement is to make use of a process
design language approach.

10. The task (activity) network is a useful mechanism for

a. computing the overall effort estimate
b. detecting inter-task dependencies
c. determining the critical path
d. specifying the task set to the customer
e. both b & c

11.

(True/False) Tasks that lie on the critical path in a task network may be completed in
any order as long as the project is on schedule

12. Two tools for computing critical path and project completion times from activity networks
are
a. CPM
b. DRE
c. FP
d. PERT
e. Both a and d

13.

(True/False) Timeline charts assist project managers in determining what tasks will be
conducted at a given point in time

14. The best indicator of progress on a software project is the completion

a. of a defined engineering activity task
b. of a successful budget review meeting on time
c. and successful review of a defined software work product
d. and successful acceptance of project prototype by the customer

15.

(True/False) Since iterative process models work best for object-oriented projects, it
is impossible to determine whether an increment will be completed on time or not.

16. The purpose of earned value analysis is to

a. determine how to compensate developers based on their productivity
b. provide a quantitative means of assessing software project progress
c. provide a qualitative means of assessing software project progress
d. set the price point for a software product based on development effort

17.

(True/False) Earned value analysis is a technique that allows managers to take

corrective action before a project crisis develops.

18.

(True/False) Proactive risk management is sometimes described as fire fighting.

19.

(True/False) Generic risks require far more attention than product-specific risks.

20.

(True/False) Individual team members can make their own estimate for a risk
probability and then develop a consensus value.

21. Software risk always involves two characteristics

a. fire fighting and crisis management

b.
c.
d.

known and unknown risks

uncertainty and loss
staffing and budget

22. Three major categories of risks are

a. business risks, personnel risks, budget risks
b. project risks, technical risks, business risks
c. planning risks, technical risks, personnel risks
d. management risks, technical risks, design risks
23. A risk item checklist would contain known and predictable risks from which of these
categories?
a. product size

b.
c.
d.
e.

development environment
staff size
process definition
all of the above

24. Questions that should be asked to assess the overall project risk include
a. Have top managers formally committed to support the project?
b. Are end-users committed to the project and proposed system being built?
c. Are requirements fully understood by development team and customers?
d. Does the proposed budget have time allocated for marketing?
e. a, b and c

25.

Software risk impact assessment should focus on consequences affecting.

a. planning, resources, cost, schedule
b. marketability, cost, personnel
c. business, technology, process
d. performance, support, cost, schedule

26. Risk projection attempts to rate each risk in two ways

a. likelihood and size
b. likelihood and probability
c. likelihood and impact
d. likelihood and mitigation
27. Risk tables are sorted by

a.
b.
c.
d.
28. Which
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.

29.

probability and cost

probability and impact
probability and size
probability and exposure

factors affect the probable consequences likely if a risk does occur?

Risk cost
Risk timing
Risk scope
Risk resources
Both b and c

(True/False) A risk referent level is a risk component value (performance, cost,

support, and schedule) or combination of values that cause a project to be terminated.

30.

(True/False) The reason for refining risks is to break them into smaller units having
different consequences

31. An effective risk management plan will need to address which of the following issues?
a. risk avoidance
b. risk monitoring
c. contingency planning
d. all of the above

32.

(True/False) Risk monitoring involves watching the risk indicators defined for the
project and not determining the effectiveness of the risk mitigation steps themselves.

33.

Hazard analysis focuses on the identification and assessment of potential hazards that
can cause

a.
b.
c.
d.

project termination
schedule slippage
external problems
entire system to fail

34.

(True/False) Risk information sheets (RIS) are never an acceptable substitute for a
full risk mitigation, monitoring, and management (RMMM) plan. After an estimate of the
development effort is made

35. Variation control in the context of software engineering involves controlling variation in the
a. process applied

b. resources expended
c. product quality attributes
d. all of the above
36.

(True/False) There is no need to assess customer satisfaction when trying to

determine the quality of a piece of software

37.

A
a.
b.
c.
d.

key concept of quality control is that all work products

are delivered on time and under budget
have complete documentation
have measurable specifications for process outputs
are thoroughly tested before delivery to the customer

38.

(True/False) The goal of quality assurance is to provide management with the data
needed to determine which software engineers are producing the most defects.

39. Quality
a.
b.
c.
d.

40.

costs may be divided into costs associated with

prevention, appraisal, and failure
people, process, and product
customers, developers, and maintenance
all of the above

(True/False) Software quality might be defined as conformance to explicitly stated

requirements and standards, nothing more and nothing less

41.

(True/False) People who perform software quality assurance must look at the software
from the customer's perspective.

42.

Which of these activities is not one of the activities recommended to be performed by

an independent SQA group?
a. prepare SQA plan for the project

b.
c.

review software engineering activities to verify process compliance

report any evidence of noncompliance to senior management

d. serve as the sole test team for any software produced

43.

(True/False) In general the earlier a software error is discovered and corrected the
less costly to the overall project budget.

44.

(True/False) The purpose of software reviews is to uncover errors in work products

so they can be removed before moving on to the next phase of development.

45.

(True/False) Defect amplification models can be used to illustrate the costs

associated with using software from its initial deployment to its retirement

46. Which
a.
b.
c.
d.

of the following are objectives for formal technical reviews?

allow senior staff members to correct errors
assess programmer productivity
determining who introduced an error into a program
uncover errors in software work products

47. At the
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.

end of a formal technical review all attendees can decide to

accept the work product without modification
modify the work product and continue the review
reject the product due to stylistic discrepancies
reject the product due to severe errors
both a and d

48. A review summary report answers which three questions?

a. terminate project, replace producer, request a time extension
b. what defects were found, what caused defects, who was responsible
c. what was reviewed, who reviewed it, what were the findings
d. none of the above

49.

(True/False) In any type of technical review, the focus of the review is on the product
and not the producer.

50.

(True/False) Sample driven reviews only make sense for very small software
development projects.

51.

(True/False) Attempts to apply mathematical proofs to demonstrate that a

program conforms to its specifications are doomed to failure.

52. Statistical quality assurance involves

a. using sampling in place of exhaustive testing of software
b. surveying customers to find out their opinions about product quality
c. tracing each defect to its underlying cause, isolating the "vital few"
causes, and moving to correct them
d. tracing each defect to its underlying causes and using the Pareto principle to
correct each problem found
53. Six Sigma methodology defines three core steps
a. analyze, improve, control
b. analyze, design, verify
c. define, measure, analyze
d. define, measure, control
54. Software reliability problems can almost always be traced to
a. errors in accuracy
b. errors in design
c. errors in implementation
d. errors in operation
e. both b and c
55. Software safety is a quality assurance activity that focuses on hazards that
a. affect the reliability of a software component
b. may cause an entire system to fail
c. may result from user input errors
d. prevent profitable marketing of the final product
56. Which of the following is not one of the desired properties of a formal specification?
a. completeness

b. conciseness
c. consistency
d. unambiguous

57. Which of the following is a deficiency of natural language specification of software

products?
a. contradictions
b. vagueness

c. mixed abstraction levels

d. all of the above
58.

(True/False) Effective use of formal methods will eliminate all defects that would
normally appear during design, coding, and testing.

59.

(True/False) It is not realistic to expect that a complex software system could be

specified using a single mathematical expression.

60.

(True/False) A data invariant is a set of conditions that are true during the execution
of any function.

61.

In some formal languages, stored data that the system accesses and alters is called

a(n)

a. attribute
b. data structure

c. state
d. variant
62. In formal methods work, an action that reads or writes data to a state is called a(n)
a. actor
b. event
c. invariant
d. operation
63. What defines the circumstances in which a particular operation is valid?
a. data invariant
b. pre-condition
c. post-condition

d. state

64. Constructive set specification is preferable to enumeration because it

a. allows succinct definition of large sets
b. only works for software products
c. uses mathematical notation
d. all of the above
65. Knowledge of _______ is indispensable if a software engineer intends to make use of
formal methods.
a. calculus

b. differential equation
c. set operations
d. statistical methods

66. Universal quantification is a way of making a statement about

a. all the elements of a set

b. particular elements of a set

c. quality of an operations input set
d. use of metrics in the design process
67. Which
a.
b.
c.

d.

of the following is not an operator that may be applied to sequences?

head
front
rear
tail

68.

(True/False) A common notational convention in many formal methods is to write

the variable with a prime in the post-condition for an operator.

69. Which
a.
b.
c.
d.

70.

of these are components of a formal specification language?

semantics that define the objects used
describe system set of relations defining the object rules
syntax that defines the notation
all of the above

(True/False)

OCL makes use of several specialized mathematical characters.