Bugs, defects, and security holes have always been present in software-intensive systems, but are now getting wide attention because of their potential for enormous damage.  Customers and end-users are demanding increased quality.  The increased use of offshore development also requires new ways to assure quality.  Business Analysts need to understand the software QA process, and to manage and implement sound QA practices.

You will gain practical exposure to Quality Assurance by following a project from beginning to end, performing QA-related activities and creating QA deliverables, as they would occur over the course of a project. Using a running case study throughout, you will assess QA plans; inspect a complete requirements document, create test plans; design, document and execute test cases; and select test data most likely to uncover bugs in the software. You will also learn how to ensure quality throughout the project lifecycle through inspections.

Mapping to the IIBA Body of Knowledge

Boston University is a Charter Endorsed Education Provider of the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA). This course supports understanding of the following knowledge areas as defined by the IIBA in the draft of the Body of Knowledge (BOK) released in July of 2006:

• Requirements Planning and Management
• Requirements Analysis and Documentation
• Requirements Implementation

Who should attend

• Business Analysts
• IT Project Managers
• QA Analysts
• Testers

What you will achieve

Upon completion of this course, you will be able to:

• Differentiate among qualities of systems analysis and software development
• Plan for the integration of quality in system selection, design, and integration
• Integrate quality assurance into IT system analysis and implementation
• Set up a QA Team with a clear understanding of the roles and responsibilities of QA Team members.
• Perform quality assurance on requirements processes and documents
• Assess and measure the quality of system designs
• Distinguish among the types of tests
• Create and document a Test Plan using a template.
• Design and specify black box tests and understand the BA role in white box and system testing.
• Ensure complete test coverage with effective use of decision tables and decision trees.

What you will learn

• Definitions of software system quality
• Quality in IT project management
• Quality in requirements analysis
• IT Design and  programming quality
• Unit testing
• System testing

Agenda

Day 1

Quality and Metrics in Information Technology               

• Defects in Software Applications
• The Meaning of Software Quality
• An Example of Quality
• Measuring Software Quality with Metrics
• Sampling for Metric Estimation
• "Verification and Validation in Software Engineering
• Attaining Quality in Software

IT Process Quality

• Principles of Managing Quality 
• Internal and External Approaches to Quality
• Managing Quality
• QA Reviews and Audits
• Inspections
• Documentation Focused on Quality
• Quality Assurance Planning and IEEE
• Defect Management

Quality Assurance in Project Management                      

• Cultivating and Planning Internal Quality
• Project Metrics
• Software Verification and Validation Plan

Quality and Metrics in Requirements Analysis                

• Accessibility of Requirements
• Comprehensiveness of Requirements
• Consistency of Requirements
• Prioritization of Requirements
• Self-Completeness of Requirements
• Testability of Requirements
• Trace-ability of Requirements
• Understandability of Requirements
• Un-ambiguity of Requirements
• Measuring Completion
• Alternative and Additional Metrics for Requirements Analysis
• Inspecting D-Requirements

Day 2

Design Quality and Metrics                                                

• Degree of Sufficiency as a Quality Goal
• Degree of Robustness as a Quality Goal
• Degree of Security as a Design Quality Goal
• Degree of Flexibility as a Design Quality Goal
• Degree of Reusability as a Design Quality Goal
• Degree of Time Efficiency as a Design Quality Measure
• Degree of Space Efficiency as a Design Quality Measure
• Degree of Reliability as a Design Quality Measure
• Assessing Quality in Architecture Selection
• Assessing the Quality of Detailed Designs

Quality and Metrics in Implementation                             

• The Sufficiency of an Implementation
• The Robustness of an Implementation
• The Flexibility of an Implementation
• The Reusability of an Implementation
• The Efficiency of an Implementation
• The Reliability of an Implementation
• The Scalability of an Implementation
• The Degree of Security of an Implementation
• Test-Driven Development

Essentials of Testing

• Principles of Testing
• Unit Testing
• The Sources of Unit Testing
• Planning For Unit Testing
• Testing Methods
• Testing a Class
• Automating Unit Testing

Techniques of Post-Unit Testing                                       

• Introduction to Post-Unit Testing
• Construction-Oriented Tests
• Performance Tests
• Specialized Tests
• Acceptance / Installation Tests