CIS 518 Discussion 1 post responses.

Respond to the colleagues posts regarding:

“Software Certification Test” Please respond to the following:

From the first e-Activity, describe two types of software testing, identify when they are applied, and explain their corresponding standards.

As a software engineer in a software development company, explain how you would apply testing standards when testing your development projects.

LGs post states the following:

“Software Certification Test” Please respond to the following: 

From the first e-Activity, describe two types of software testing, identify when they are applied, and explain their corresponding standards.

One type of software testing is acceptance testing.   Acceptance testing is the determination if the system is acceptable for use.  The acceptance testing evaluates the system functionality and uses with the business requirements and, , after completion, determines if they feel the system is acceptable for delivery.  The testing is focused on real-case situations that would transpire in the business and how the business would utilize the system in daily settings.  There are different accepting testing, including benchmark, pilot, alpha, beta, and parallel.  

Benchmarking:  Performs loading testing of a component or entire end-to-end system; repeatable while performance measures between the hard/software

Pilot:   Verifies a component of the system or entire system under real-time operation. It is completed between the time the user (customers) accepting testing and production. 

Alpha:   Initial testing usually conducted in a controlled environment, such as in a lab with internal customers.  This testing is performed in the early stages of the development or at the end of the development but before the beta testing.

Beta:   This type of testing is performed by real customers (users) of the system in a business (real) environment.  The testing is performed; the system is presented to the customers for use. 

Parallel:   Is perform in the combination of multiple applications concurrently.  The objective of the is to test the functional characteristics of the application

The ISO/IEC/IEEE 29119 is the standard for software testing that follows the system development life cycle (SDLC) for software development.  

Phleeger, S. L., Atlee, J. M.  (2009-02-01). Software Engineering: Theory and Practice,  4th Edition [VitalSource Bookshelf version].  Retrieved from vbk://9781323089309 

What is Acceptance Testing? (2019, September 24). Retrieved from https://www.agilealliance.org/glossary/acceptance/#q=~(infinite~false~filters~(postType~(~’page~’post~’aa_book~’aa_event_session~’aa_experience_report~’aa_glossary~’aa_research_paper~’aa_video)~tags~(~’acceptance*20test))~searchTerm~’~sort~false~sortDirection~’asc~page~1)

As a software engineer in a software development company, explain how you would apply testing standards when testing your development projects.

A s/w engineer would apply the ISO/IEC/IEEE 29119 by performing a series of steps;

1.Basic functionality Testing:  Benchmarking

2.Code Review Testing:  Alpha

3.Code Analysis Testing: Beta

4.Unit Testing: Pilot

5.Single-User Testing: Parallel

CIS 518 Discussion 2 post responses.

Respond to the colleagues posts regarding:

“User Documentation” Please respond to the following:

From the second e-Activity, discuss the readability and usefulness of the online user manual that you have researched. Identify its strengths and weaknesses, and areas where it could be improved.

From the second e-Activity, describe how you would modify the documentation to improve the user s ability to interpret failure messages and look up topics in the documentation if that user had little or no experience with computers and software.

LGs post states the following:

“User Documentation” Please respond to the following: 

From the second e-Activity, discuss the readability and usefulness of the online user manual that you have researched. Identify its strengths and weaknesses, and areas where it could be improved.

Readability is important because its how the online user manual would be used to communicate the information to the user.  Online user manuals need to be content that a user can access to help convey information on how to use the system, ability to troubleshoot issues or provide helpful information for a particular function the user is attempting to perform.  The readability measures how easy the content is to read.   The intent of the user manual is to give assistance to the user on the system that is more self-service instead of a technical expert.

Online user manuals are cost-effective to develop because it’s developed in full once and then its easily updated by pages or sections and swapping out the old with the new.  The other aspect s it doesn’t require one person to develop as individuals can be designated to update section(s) accordingly following a content management structure for the guide. Ultimately the online user manual provides answers about the product and its functionality allowing the user to self-manage and acquires the answers to the information they want when they want it.  Although online user manuals provide many benefits, there are do disadvantages.  Examples of disadvantages include searching for techniques.  Most online user manuals allow us to search for a keyword or term but not necessarily a concept.  For example, a user may be an attempt to execute a particular capability within the system but may not know the term its called.  They may encounter issues trying to find through the search index. Another issue may be the online user manual may have screenshots or a video of how to execute the function, but the quality of the video is of poor quality or not very clear or screenshots are not displaying the latest version so its confusion to the user.  

Ways to improve these areas is to ensure that after each new releases there is an update to the online user manual accordingly.  Another way to improve is follow standards such as content management standards, style sheets or web/video standards so there is some uniformity.  Also dating and versioning will help the user to know when the information was last updates and which version of the system is the content is referring to. 

Bhatia, S. (2019, December 18). How Online Manuals Can Cut Costs and Improve Support. Retrieved from https://itchronicles.com/itsm/online-user-manuals/

Levinson, M. (n.d.). Web Help: Pros and Cons. Retrieved from https://clickhelp.com/clickhelp-technical-writing-blog/web-help-cons-and-pros/

McCoy, J., Smith, V., Mcghee, R., & Kristel. (2016, August 26). The Web Content Writer’s Guide to FleschKincaid Readability. Retrieved from https://expresswriters.com/guide-on-flesch-kincaid-readability/

From the second e-Activity, describe how you would modify the documentation to improve the user s ability to interpret failure messages and look up topics in the documentation if that user had little or no experience with computers and software.

Ways online user manuals can be improve include:

Transition text content, where applicable, to visuals, including screenshots (displaying the date updated and version of the software), flowcharts to demonstrate steps)

Content should be written for a broad audience, hence the readability, i.e., 60+ score (most people with eighth-grade education) should focus on scoring that meets the masses, in plain language and have simplicity where possible

The content should focus on the problem and not having the user have to go to other sections

Searchable (keyword, terms and content)

Accessible (meaning 508 compliant, i.e., caption, color-blindness, browser-friendly)

Link to further resources i.e., web, online chat, blogs, forum, or contact (email/phone) where needed.