ITECH7409 Software Testing

Tutorial 1

This tutorial comprises two parts: Review Questions and Further Exercises. The Review Questions have
been designed as a revision exercise covering some of the main points covered in the lectures. The
Further Exercises are generally exploratory in nature being extensions of the lecture materials. Students
will benefit if they discuss their solutions to both parts in small groups. All questions should be
attempted and it is expected that students may need to complete some of the tutorial in their own time.
Note: some of the questions in Further Exercises may require the use of a computer with some specific
software and internet connection.

As the final exam will draw material from lectures, tutorials and assignments, students are strongly
advised to work consistently and to attend both lectures and tutorials.

Review Questions
1. What is software testing?

2. Use the lecture program intnumZero to explain how it Is possible for a set of tests to show no
error in code when a problem still exists.

3. Explain the difference between positive testing and negative testing.

4. What is exhaustive testing?

5. Explain the difference between verification and validation of a program.

6. Describe the details of any incident where software testing failed.

7. Give two major reasons computer systems contain errors and fail?

8. What is the difference between a fault and an error? Give an example of each.

9. What are the three mechanisms for handling errors?

10. Explain the five levels of testing.

11. What are the three ‘C’s of software quality?

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12. Choose three measures of quality and give a definition of each.

Further exercises
Investigate answer the following questions using reliable sources on the Internet.

13. Computer system failures have been occurring since the earliest days of computing. One of
the most (in)famous problem is known worldwide as the Y2K bug.
 What exactly was the Y2K bug?
 What were the fears concerning the Y2K bug?
 Where these fears realised?

14. Globally Stock exchanges are concerned about the effects of a ‘Flash crash’.
 What is a ‘Flash crash’?
 What happened in the NASDAQ Flash crash on August 22, 2013?
 The stock exchange launch of Facebook launch did not go as investors hoped. What
actually happened on the day of listing?

15. With a partner go to the News Archive of website “Teach-ICT.com” at http://www.teach-

ict.com/news/news_stories/news_computer_failures.htm. The website lists news stories of
recent computer glitches and problems reported in the media. Select one of the stories listed
on the website.
Summarize the important details of the news story and give a two minute presentation to the
rest of the class describing the event and its outcome.

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