CSE 401/501

(formerly CSE 321)

Catalog description:

Quality: how to assure it and verify it, and the need for a culture of quality. Avoidance of errors and other quality problems. Inspections and reviews. Testing, verification and validation techniques. Process assurance vs. Product assurance. Quality process standards. Product and process assurance.  Formal verification. Statistical testing.

Prerequisite:

CSE 302

Required topics (approximate weeks allocated):

• Introduction to software quality assurance (1 week)
  • Terminology: verification, validation, testing
  • Psychology of testing
  • Coverage criteria
• Inspections and reviews (1 week)
• Testing Techniques: graph-based (4 weeks)
  • Graph coverage criteria: structural coverage
  • Graph coverage criteria: data flow coverage
  • Graph coverage of source code: structural and data flow
  • Graph coverage of design elements, specification, and use cases
• Testing Techniques: logic-based (2 weeks)
• Testing Techniques: input space partitioning (2 weeks)
• Testing Techniques: syntax-based (2 weeks)
• Regression testing (0.5 weeks)
• Test plans (0.5 weeks)
• Testing of object-oriented and web-based software (1 week)
• Model checking (1 week)
  • State models
  • Properties: liveness, safety

Course Outcomes

• Design and Implement Test Plans and Procedures
• Apply a wide variety of testing techniques at various testing levels
• Use test tools to effectively test software
• Compute and use various testing metrics
• Graduate Students Only: Apply advanced coverage techniques to automatically generate test suites
• Graduate Students Only: Explain appropriate test prioritization and test suite minimization techniques