Some typical exam problems for the course Advanced Software Engineering

Guide to SWEBOK

  1. What is meant by "Generally accepted knowledge"?
  2. How is each knowledge area structured?
  3. What is the relation between the Guide to SWEBOK and the SWEBOK itself?
  4. Give your own definition of Software Engineering. Explain how and why this differs to the underlying definition according to the Guide of SWEBOK.
  5. During the course we said that articles occurring after 1990 are often still valid. Explain why?
  6. Give an example of a product requirement and a process requirement.
  7. Is a design constraint a functional or non-functional requirement? Explain why with an example.
  8. Give examples of typical software stakeholders.
  9. Give a brief description of requirements elicitation, analysis, specification and validation.
  10. Give some examples of requirements elicitation techniques.
  11. Who are the expected readers of a requirements specification? How will they use the information from the requirements specification in their own work?
  12. Give some examples of how requirements can be validated?
  13. What is the difference between an architectural style and a design pattern?
  14. Describe some Software design principles (aka Enabling techniques).
  15. In an article you have found a wonderful algorithm, which you want to use in building a software component. Give some examples of practical aspects you have to consider in the design apart from the algorithm itself.
  16. Give some examples of you might validate a design.
  17. Give some examples of notations used to describe software design artefacts.
  18. The Guide to SWEBOK states that construction is also concerned with design and testing. Explain why?
  19. Can we skip the Construction knowledge area if we are doing Component-based design? Motivate the answer.
  20. Give some examples of how we can construct software for verification.
  21. Give an example of how the design of a programming language can become a concern for a Software engineer.
  22. Testing can be though of as a subset of Software Quality, explain how.
  23. How are the terms fault, failure and error related in Software engineering?
  24. Describe the term the Oracle problem.
  25. Give some different test methods suitable for different objectives of testing.
  26. What is specification-based testing?
  27. What is an Operational profile?
  28. How can you evaluate whether your test cases were properly selected?
  29. How can a software engineer use fault classification data?
  30. Which issue consumes most of the human effort in maintenance?
  31. What is the role of reverse engineering for maintenance?
  32. Why do we need Software configuration management?
  33. What is a Software baseline?
  34. Make a sketch of a Software change process.
  35. Explain the terms Version, Revision and Variant of a software item.
  36. Give some different types of management areas that are included in the Software management KA.
  37. A colleague of mine found that elements of Plan management were the only significantly factors contributing to the success of a set of projects. What is Plan management?
  38. Which are the main steps in a measurement process plan?
  39. Software engineering processes can be studied on two levels, which are they and how are they handled in the Guide to SWEBOK?
  40. What is an Experience factory?
  41. Give some examples of Process measurements.
  42. Describe some Analytical process measurement techniques. How can they be related to Software Engineering research?
  43. Describe the two most important Software engineering tools as you would buy if you were an owner of a software company. Motivate why?
  44. Give some examples of how prototyping can be used in Software Engineering.
  45. Why is culture and ethics important for software quality?
  46. Describe the relation between Process quality and Product quality.
  47. Quality engineers often claim that "Quality improvement always pays off." What is their main argument for that?
  48. Give some examples of reviews and/or audits.
  49. What is the major difference between Systems engineering and Software Engineering?
  50. If you were to define a small course in Mathematics for software engineering, which parts would you focus on and why?

Metrics

  1. Give an example of a product metric measured on a nominal scale, explain why it is nominal.
  2. Give an example of a product metric that is not measured on a nominal scale and explain why it is not nominal.
  3. Give an example of a Goal-Question-Metric (GQM) triple.

Prediction

  1. Give some examples of things that we want to predict in a Software Engineering project.
  2. Describe a method for building prediction models.
  3. What is the COCOMO method?

Reuse

  1. Give examples of benefits for reuse.
  2. Give examples of techniques for reuse.
  3. Give examples of costs for reuse.

Maintenance

  1. Which categories of maintenance does the Guide to SWEBOK mention? Give a short statement describing each of them.
  2. Give examples of issues that occur in the maintenance process, but not in development from scratch.
  3. What is program slicing, and what is the role of program slicing in maintenance?

Market-driven SE

  1. What is the role of Market segmentation?
  2. Give an example of how Competitor analysis can be performed.
  3. Portfolio analysis can be described as an optimization problem. Give some examples of goal variables and input variables.

Formal methods

  1. Why can a project benefit from a Formal specification even though no formal verification techniques are used?
  2. What is the difference between an automated tool for logical proofs and a model checker?
  3. Give a short definition of the three C's that you want to prove about a formally specified system.

Process management

  1. Which are the duties of a process manager?
  2. Briefly describe the characteristics of the five CMMI levels.
  3. Give an example of a success factor for Software process improvement.

Research methods

  1. What is required to call an investigation a controlled experiment?
  2. What is protocol analysis?
  3. What is the difference between Participatory observation and Action research?

Professionalism and ethics

  1. Give some characteristics of a Profession.
  2. Give an example of an ethical issue in communication with colleagues.
  3. Give an example of an ethical issue in communication with customers.