Ics 2302:Software Engineering. Question Paper
Ics 2302:Software Engineering.
Course:Business Information Technology
Institution: Meru University Of Science And Technology question papers
Exam Year:2013
QUESTION ONE – 30 MARKS
a. Distinguish between functional and non-functional requirements. (4 Marks) b. Software quality measurement generally starts with high level quality goals and then identifies metrics that can be used to indicate satisfaction of the quality goals. For each of the following quality goals, explain why the goal is important and identify a metric that could be used to measure it i. Reliability (2 Marks) ii. Efficiency (2 Marks) iii. Usability (2 Marks)
c. A project manager can modify three basic elements of a software project: the resources available, the time available and the amount of product to be built. Describe how each of these three can be varied during a development process in order to ensure the resulting software is of high quality. (6 Marks) d. Integration testing can be tacked top-down or bottom-up. Describe each of these strategies. (4 Marks) e. For an automated teller machine (ATM) that allows clients to perform the following functions: ? Deposit cash ? Withdraw cash ? Get statements ? Transfer cash from one account to the other in same bank provided the two accounts belong to the same customer. ? Develop a set of use-cases that could serve as a basis for understanding the requirements for the ATM system. (10 Marks)
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QUESTION TWO – 20 MARKS
a. Describe three different methods that an analyst can use for getting requirements for an information system from an organization. (6 Marks) b. Before you carry out the requirement engineering process it is always important to undertake a feasibility study. i. What is a feasibility study? (2 Marks) ii. Discuss four types of feasibility test that must be considered. (4 Marks)
c. Elegant software solutions has been employing the Build-And-Fix approach to software development for the past 3 years. This has resulted in several lawsuits for late delivery and poor quality of software. To address this issue senior management has hired you as a quality assessment consultants to: i. Explain the source of the problem and; (2 Marks) ii. Document an alternative software development strategy. The proposed strategy must be fully explained, giving any inherent advantages and disadvantages of the development strategy. (6 Marks)
QUESTION THREE – 20 MARKS
a. Define the term CASE and mention four tools and the activities they automate. (4 Marks) b. Describe the following design approaches stating the advantages of each: i. Object oriented design (3 Marks) ii. User interface design (3 Marks)
c. Risk management is an essential part of project management. Describe three typical risks that can occur in a software project. (6 Marks)
d. Your company has just acquired a smaller company that sells office automation software. The smaller company’s spreadsheet software has a large market share, with many satisfied users (A major reason for the acquisition was that these existing users are potential customers for your company’s other products). Unfortunately, no documentation for the spreadsheet software can be found and the source code is not commented. How would you go about maintaining this software to keep the customers happy? (4 Marks)
QUESTION FOUR – 20 MARKS
a. Define the terms verification and validation. (4 Marks) b. Each of the following property is import during software specification. Explain how each of the property can be achieved when writing specifications: i. Validity (2 Marks) ii. Traceability (2 Marks) iii. Verifiability (2 Marks)
c. A charity has asked you to prototype a system that keeps track of all donations they have received. This system has to maintain the names and addresses of donors, their particular interests, the amount donated and when the donation was made. If the donation is over a certain amount, the donor may attach conditions to the donation (e.g it must be spent on a particular project) and the system must keep track of these and how the donation was spent. Discuss how you would prototype this system bearing in mind that the charity has a mixture of paid workers and volunteers. Many of the volunteers are retirees who have had little or no computer experience. (10 Marks)
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QUESTION FIVE -20 MARKS
a. State two advantages and two disadvantages of specifying requirements by using models as a complement to natural language. (4 Marks)
b. Explain the purpose of each of the following. What types of error is each likely to find? i. Endurance testing (2 Marks) ii. Recoverability testing (2 Marks) iii. Regression testing (2 Marks)
c. A car manufacturer wishes to save weight and improve reliability by replacing most of the vehicle’s wiring harness with a local area network. Systems such as engine management, anti lock braking, traction control and stability control will thus share common platform components. Your task is to ensure that the safety of these systems and of the vehicle electronics overall is not impaired by this upgrade: i. Describe the methodology you would adopt for the project and justify your choice. (3 Marks)
ii. How would you then ensure that subsequent development of these sub-systems, which you should assume are supplied by different sub-contractor do not comprise vehicles safety. (3 Marks)
iii. Describe with examples how the choice of programming language and programming tools can affect the reliability of the software developed using them. (4 Marks)
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