Glossary of the Lecture 4 «Software Testing Life Cycle» for the «Fundamentals of Software Testing» course

Project Environment – consists of all the elements around the project: team, release schedules, resources, artefacts, reports.

(The environment of the project, the testing environment, the conditions for testing the project)

Perceived Quality – result of the test strategy that has been achieved after applying the testing techniques defined in the model.

Product Elements – elements of which the product consists of. The HTSM model provides a useful SFDPOT (San Francisco Depot - S Structure F Function D Data P Platform O Operations T Time) mnemonic to structure the approach for learning product elements.

(Product components)

Software Development Life Cycle – activities performed at each stage in software development, and the way they relate to one another logically and chronologically.

Scope of Work – a short plan for conducting a testing activity that covers a quite long period of work and describes methods to achieve the goal.

Specification (Requirement) – a document (ideally, exhaustive, unambiguous and accessible) describing the requirements, design, behavior or other characteristics of a component or system. Performance control procedures are often included in the specification.

(System operation rules, correct system operation description, system characteristics description)

Test Plan – a documentation describing the test objectives to be achieved and the means and the schedule for achieving them, organized to coordinate testing activities. It defines the objects of the testing, testing properties, tasks, testers responsible for the performing the task, degree of the independency of each of the  testers, testing environment, test projecting methods; defines the entrance criterias used as well as exit ones in addition to the reason why to chose them. It also includes all of the risks that must be planned in the emergency situations.

Agile Model – a combination of different approaches to software development. It includes a series of approaches to the software development focused on the use of iterative development, the dynamic formation of requirements and ensuring their implementation as a result of constant interaction within self-organizing working groups consisting of specialists in various fields. A separate iteration is a miniature software project. One of the main ideas of Agile is the interaction within the team and with the customer that provides quick decisions-making and minimizes the software development risks.

(The agile method, agile development)

Incremental Model – suggests dividing the complete system requirements into different builds. Terminology is often used to describe a phased build of the software. There are several development cycles and they make up the multi-waterfall life cycle together. The cycle is divided into smaller, easy-to-create modules. Each module goes through the phases of requirements definition, test design, coding, implementation and testing. The development procedure for the incremental model involves the release of the product basic functionality at the first large stage and then the sequential addition of new functions, the so-called «increments». The process continues until a complete system is created.

Iterative Model – does not require a complete specification of requirements to start. Instead, the production begins with the implementation of a part of the functionality that becomes the basis for determining further requirements. This process is repeated. The version may not be perfect as long as it works. Understanding the ultimate goal we strive for it so that every step is effective and each version is functioning.

Spiral Model (Boehm's Model) – in the spiral model the life cycle of the product being developed is represented in the form of a spiral. The spiral starts at the planning stage and untwists with the passage of each next step. Thus, at the exit of a certain stage we get an already tested prototype that complements the existing build. The prototype meets all the requirements and is ready for release. The main feature of the spiral model is the concentration on possible risks.

Scrum – one of the agile software development methodologies based on a set of principles that allows to provide short time-limited work periods (sprints, from 2 to 4 weeks) to provide the user with the working software with added features defined as high-priority.

(Agile method, agile development, agile model)

V-model – an improved version of the classic cascade (waterfall) model. V-model suggests monitoring the process at each stage to ensure the possibility of moving to the next level. In this model testing starts from the stage of writing the requirements and the corresponding level of test coverage is provided for each of the subsequent stages.

(VEE model, sequential execution with control, phased development with control)

Waterfall Model – suggests the sequential implementation of various stages of activity including requirements analysis, test design, coding and testing of separate modules (components), system testing and integration testing of the entire final product. Thus, each type of the activity is carried out at a specific phase of the software life cycle;  the movement in the opposite direction along this chain is impossible.

Product Owner – represents the interests of users and other parties interested in the product.

(Customer, customer representative)

Product backlog – in agile methodology is a prioritized list of not implemented project tasks. The backlog may contain the user stories, business processes, change requests and infrastructure development. Functioning items from the backlog are assigned to future iterations depending on their priorities.

Planning Poker (Scrum poker) – a planning tool in agile development. The evaluation method used to assess the complexity of upcoming work or the relative volume of the solved tasks during the software development.

Scrum master – holds meetings (Scrum meetings), monitors compliance with all the principles of scrum, resolves contradictions and protects the team from distractions.

(Leader, team leader)

Scrum Team – a cross-functional team of project developers, consisting of the specialists of different fields: testers, architects, analysts, programmers, etc. Ideally, the size of the team is 7 ± 2 people.

(Project development team, project team)

Customer – a person (individual or legal) interested in the contractor's work execution, the provided services or the purchase of a product from the seller.

Project Manager is a specialist whose main task is to manage the project in general: designing and prioritizing, scheduling tasks, monitoring, communication, and fast problem-solving.

(Leader, PM)

Architect – an IT specialist who makes decisions regarding the internal structure and external interfaces of the software product, taking into account design requirements and available resources.

Developer – a specialist engaged in writing and updating programs - programming.

(Programmer, coder)

QA Engineer – a quality assurance specialist responsible for improving the software development process, preventing defects and identifying errors in the product.

(Quality Assurance Specialist, Software Tester)

QA Automation Engineer is a quality assurance specialist who uses software tools to create tests and verify results.

(Automator, automation tester)

Business Analyst – a specialist who investigates the customer’s problem, looks for the   solution and draws up the concept in the form of requirements that developers will focus on during creating the product.

Technical Writer – a specialist who writes various documentation, both for internal use and for the end-users of the software (user manuals, help systems, etc.)