Software quality and management

Assignment 2

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MITS5501 Software Quality, Change Management and Testing

Assignment 2: Case Study

Assignment Objectives

This assessment item relates to the unit learning outcomes as in the unit descriptor. This

assessment is designed to improve student collaborative skills in a team environment and to

give students experience in developing Quality Assurance documents including the Quality

Plan, Test Plans and Test Cases using a simulated industry case study.

Case Study Assignment - 25% (week 13)

In this assignment students will work in small groups (5 members) to provide an industrial

related understanding of components of the Quality Assurance documents discussed in

lectures. Student groups should be formed by Session four. Each group needs to complete the

group participation form attached to the end of this document.

With your team, you will need to:

• identify a person or manager within an IT organisation/department that is willing to be

interviewed by your team;

• prepare a set of suitable interview questions, as per guide following;

• organise and conduct the interview;

• submit an audio recording of interview, preferably as an mp3 file format;

• prepare a written report; and

• prepare and record a team presentation (maximum time of 10 minutes) of your

findings

The Interview and its preparation

Topics

The team interview will be focused on software quality assurance, Software testing and

configuration management. The team will prepare a set of questions on how each of the three

topics addressed The Software development companies. The questions must cover but not

limited to the following subtopics

1. Quality Assurance Plan

2. Test Plan

3. Test cases

4. Test Effort Estimation

Assignment 2

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Selecting an interviewee

The interviewee should be someone who works in an IT industry, preferably software quality

assurance engineer, software tester, SW project manager, or a developer.

Organising the interview

The team leader must ensure that only one member of your team contacts the interviewee and

that a time and place for the interview is agreed to. Evidence of this preparation will be given

in the written report for Part 1 Assessment (see details in the following Marking Guide).

Ideally, you should try to interview the person in their workplace. In preparation for the

interview, your team needs to meet (possibly electronically) to discuss and prepare a list of

appropriate questions on above chosen topics.

In organising your interview with the interviewee, you should:

1. propose the topics for the interview

2. request an interview time of at least 30 minutes

3. negotiate a suitable time with the interviewee

4. obtain permission to record the interview

Conducting the interview

You should attempt to conduct the interview on strictly professional lines. It is a useful

technique to switch off your mobile in front of the interviewee as the interview starts, because

this sometimes prompts the interviewee to switch theirs off as well. Remember to confirm that

the interview is able to be recorded, and commence the recording.

Ensure that each member of your team has the opportunity to ask the interviewee at least one

of the prepared questions. Keep to the allotted time, and do not overrun.

Part 1: Written Report

Each team will submit one written report only for assessment. The report will be a collation of

individual contributions of team members. It is expected that each team member will make a

contribution to the report of between 350-400 words. The maximum length of the report is

2000 words. The report should cover the interview preparation, execution, and your own

reflection on the interview (compared to what you learned).

As part of the report, there should be a statement listing of the contributions of each team

member as below:

Student Contribution

Student Name(s) /

Number(s):

%

Contribution

Description of the

contribution

No of hours worked for

this assessment

Assignment 2

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All evidence of timesheet/ weekly meeting minutes and agendas must be included in your

report as an appendix.

Part 2: Electronic Presentation

The presentation will have the following structure. It will:

• have a maximum duration of 10 minutes;

• adopt a consistent slide template;

• include slides incorporating (Max10 slides)

• an introduction to the presentation including title, team members;

• background details of the person interviewed;

• listing of topics discussed

• information provided in the interview (one slide per topic);

• lessons learnt from conducting the interview;

• lessons learnt from working in a team.

Assessment Weighting: 25%

Due Date: Report - Week 13 Sunday, e-Presentation – During Week 13 tutorial

This assessment consists of 2 parts as outlined below.

Part 1: 15 % Written report and audio record of interview (2 files: a word document

and an audio recording, preferably mp3 format).

+

Part 2: 10 % presentation

Please note that your Presentation require demonstration during your tutorial

session in week 13.

Submission: For each team, there is ONE assignment submission consisting of 3 files

submitted electronically. Each file should use the team number as part of the filename.

Please zip your each part of your solutions before uploading.

Assignment 2

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Group Participation Form This form is to be completed by the group and returned to your tutor/lecturer

as soon as possible. We, the undersigned, agree to contribute individually and as a team to complete

the Group Assignment for MITS5501 Software Quality, Change Management and Testing in the time

specified. (It should be noted that failure to participate in a group may result in a fail for the assignment

component of the subject.) Group membership:

ID Student Name(s) / Number(s): Group NO

Group No to be filled by The Lecturer

* All members in the team will receive the same mark for an assignment, unless there are extenuating

circumstances whereby an individual’s mark has to be altered by the tutor/lecturer, or if the peer group

assessment warrants it. ** Team members should contact their tutor/lecturer immediately if problems

arise within the team that may cause completion of an assignment to be severely delayed, or the

quality of the submission to be substantially lowered.