FACULTY OF SCIENCE

ACADEMY OF COMPUTER SCIENCE AND SOFTWARE ENGINEERING

MODULE IFM03B3
INFORMATICS 3B:
ADVANCED SOFTWARE ENGINEERING

CAMPUS APK

SEMESTER TEST 1 AUGUST 2020

DATE 2020-08-26 DOWNLOAD/READ 08:00-08:10

WRITING 08:10-09:40
UPLOAD DEADLINE 09:40–10:10

ASSESSORS DR FF BLAUW
PROF WS LEUNG

INTERNAL MODERATOR MR HJC VAN DER WESTHUIZEN

DURATION MARKS 75
Download and Reading 10 minutes
Writing 90 minutes
Buffer for Uploads 30 minutes

INSTRUCTIONS
 Length of this question paper (including this cover page): 6 (six) pages.
 ALL Questions (Q1 – 8) must be answered.
 This test must be completed by yourself within the prescribed time limit (see above).
 You are bound by all university regulations. Please take special note of those regarding
assessment, plagiarism, and ethical conduct.
 You must complete and submit the “Honesty Declaration” document to EVE. No
submissions without an accompanying declaration will be marked.
 You may submit scanned pages as per the instructions on EVE. Should you do so, please
ensure that:
 Images are NOT blurry (despite what NCIS claims, our Forensic skills do not
cover ZOOM! ENLARGE! ENHANCE!)
 The submission of your answers is ORDERED Question 1 to Question 8
 Submissions must be made to Eve BEFORE the Upload Deadline published above.
 No communication concerning this test is permissible during the assessment session
except with Dr Blauw or Prof Leung.
 INFORMATICS 3B 2020 – SEMESTER TEST 1

PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU FULLY UNDERSTAND THESE INSTRUCTIONS.

The Academy reserves the right to check your submission for originality. Make certain
that the work you submit is your own.

DO NOT COMMUNICATE WITH YOUR FELLOW STUDENTS DURING THIS TIME

IF IN DOUBT, DM ONLY DR BLAUW OR PROF LEUNG on DISCORD

THE INFORMATICS INN WILL SCREENCAST THE COUNTDOWN TIMER

discord.gg/aHNHyMD

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 INFORMATICS 3B 2020 – SEMESTER TEST 1

To: md@agililitydevs.com

From: farmlife4life@stardew.co.za

Subject: Project PanGOlin

It certainly has been years, hasn’t it? It seems like

it was just yesterday when you were still a beginner
programmer developing for us. I was so proud when Elsa-
Marie waved a copy of Young Fortunes magazine at me, raving
about how you were featured in their 2020 list (at number
1, no less!) as the managing director and founder of the
incredibly successful development house AgilityDevs.

The reason I am writing to you is to hire your company for

a project. I call it PanGOlin. Do you remember my passion
project, Thabo and Elsa-Marie’s Pangolin Sanctuary?

The costs of keeping the pangolins has become quite high

and we are hoping we can attract funding from the public
worldwide by encouraging them to adopt a pangolin (or
many). We require a system which will allow visitors to
do virtual walkthroughs of the Sanctuary to meet the
various pangolins in the Sanctuary. Clicking on a pangolin
will pull up the pangolin’s name. If the visitor has not
yet adopted this pangolin, they can do so by adding the
pangolin to their “Adoption Nest” by donating the adoption
fee. Visitors will then receive updates on events relating
to the pangolin(s) they have adopted (such as having found
their soulmate or having a birthday). Each pangolin can be
adopted by any number of visitors while a visitor is free
to make any number of adoptions. Visitors are also able to
make additional contributions to the continued upkeep of
the pangolins in their “Adoption Nest”. The system must be
extremely easy to use so that adoption and contributions
are effortless. The idea is we have got to match them all!

To avoid financial scandals, all transactions must be

auditable. For South African taxpayers, our system will
report all donations made to SARS’ eFiling system so
taxpayers are able to claim back on their taxes.

Kindest regards
Farmer Thabo

3
 INFORMATICS 3B 2020 – SEMESTER TEST 1

Question 1: Quality in Software

Considering that Farmer Thabo and his wife Elsa-Marie gave you your first break when you were just
starting off with learning to program, you want to ensure that their faith in you (and your company) is
not misplaced. In fact, it was he and Elsa-Marie, who through word of mouth, got you more and more
high-profile projects to get your company to where it is today, one of the top development firms in
Southern Africa which boasts numerous multi-million dollar net-worth clients. You therefore agree to
take on the couple as a client to take their non-profit endeavour to the next level, and play an active
role in ensuring the quality of the system.

When it comes to quality, the ISO 25010 quality standard defines two quality models, quality in (10)
use, and product quality. With relation to the following characteristics, describe what you would
be looking for when assessing for quality in PanGOlin in terms of:
a) Effectiveness
b) Efficiency
c) Usability
d) Reliability
e) Security

How NOT to answer the above question: yes, the items above come straight from the
textbook. Yes, we all know you are perfectly capable of copying “Accuracy and completeness
with which users acheive goals” for 1a). That tells you WHAT efficiency is. In terms of the
PanGOlin project, according to WHAT will you assess PanGOlin’s ability to satisfy that?

Farmer Thabo and Elsa-Marie are FAR from AgilityDev’s usual client profile (these days, (5)
especially). For one, PanGOlin is a project that will not be helping the company to “bring
home the bacon”. Hold it! Did
you answer this
f) Would you hand over “good enough” software to the couple? Motivate. question yet?
[15]
Question 2: Formal Technical Reviews
After meeting up with Farmer Thabo and Elsa-Marie to discuss the details of PanGOlin further,
the development team go forth to produce a 75-page draft design document comprising 68 UML
diagrams and other descriptive materials. On average, the team’s error density when it comes to design
documents is 0.2 errors per page. Prior to the six-hour technical review session, you and the team report
on the time taken to prepare:
Preparation: Person Hours
You 12
Andile 10
Barbara 11
Mpho 10
Trevor 9.5
The technical review identifies 9 minor and 6 major errors. The team will require 2 person-hours to fix
each minor error, and 6 person-hours to fix each of the major ones.
a) Calculate the review effort of the above technical review. (4)
b) Calculate the error density for the 75-page draft design document. (4)
c) Keeping in mind how formal technical reviews work, comment on the above review. Your (7)
discussion should include references to the calculated outcomes and whether the review was
effective. Motivate your answer.
[15]
Credit: Pangolin image above by Coret Steyn from the Noun Project
4
 INFORMATICS 3B 2020 – SEMESTER TEST 1

Question 3: Applying Six Sigma to PanGOlin

Six Sigma is a methodology that can be applied to ensure that software developed is of an extremely
high-quality standard.

Identify a potential defect that could materialise with the development of PanGOlin. Describe (10)
what you would do during each of the steps of the Six Sigma methodology to ensure quality
in PanGOlin.

Again, DO NOT copy and paste the steps as defined in the prescribed textbook. Your steps
must demonstrate that they are a valid (Six Sigma) approach to addressing the potential defect
in PanGOlin that you have identified.

[10]
Question 4: Basis Path Testing
Consider the following flowchart which maps out code written for one of PanGOlin’s modules.

4 3

7 8

10
11

a) Calculate the number of independent paths in the above graph. Show your full working out. (4)
b) Define the full set of independent paths. (6)
[10]

5
 INFORMATICS 3B 2020 – SEMESTER TEST 1

Question 5: Software Testing

The PanGOlin team come to your office, seeking your input to break the current deadlock in decision-
making.

BEFORE you proceed, remember that you should as a minimum, write the number of facts to match
the mark allocation of a question. There are DEFINITELY many more facts than what is being asked
here. Put forward your most compelling arguments to secure your marks.

DO NOT RAMBLE ON NEEDLESSLY!

a) Half the team believes that they should use White-Box testing while the other half believes (5)
that Black-Box testing will be far more appropriate. Which one of the testing strategies
should the team go with? Motivate by explaining why your answer is the correct one.
b) Briefly describe the integration testing approach that your team (heavily into agile (5)
development as your company’s name suggests) will likely use for PanGOlin.
[10]
Question 6: Testing for Multiple Devices
Based on your company’s experience and that of the research from Farmer Thabo’s consultant, (7)
it was identified that 70% of potential donors have access to Android devices, 10% use Apple
phones, 4% have a Windows phone; and 6% do not have a smartphone (but will have access
to a desktop machine).

Identify TWO appropriate platforms that PanGOlin would likely be developed for and
construct a Weighted Device Platform Matrix (WDPM) to advise your team on where testing
efforts should be concentrated. Do not simply put together a WDPM, INTERPRET your
results as well.

Yes, we are AWARE the above does NOT ADD up to 100%. This is CORRECT.
[7]
Question 7: Artificial Intelligence in Testing
After months of hearing about Artificial Intelligence, you have decided to take the plunge and (5)
incorporate “AI” as part of your testing strategy. Discuss some of the different ways in which
this might be applied appropriately to promote quality assurance in your product.
[5]
Question 8: Data Science as Part of Software Engineering
You know that Farmer Thabo’s idea will not be able to “match them all” on its own. However, (3)
you believe that through the power of data science, you might just be able to reach more
donors and dramatically increase the number of adoptions. Discuss what this inclusion of data
science would entail.

HINT: The folks from BSG gave a presentation on this topic.

[3]
The End

Have you uploaded your Honesty Declaration?