Manar Abu Talib

Techniques for Quantitative Analysis of Software Quality throughout the SDLC: The SWEBOK Guide Coverage

This paper presents an overview of quantitative analysis techniques for software quality and their applicability during the software development life cycle (SDLC). This includes the Seven Basic Tools of Quality, Statistical Process Control, and Six Sigma, and it highlights how these techniques can be used for managing and controlling the quality of software during specification, design, implementation, testing, and maintenance. We verify whether or not these techniques, which are generally accepted for most projects, most of the time, and have value that is recognized by the peer community, have indeed been included in the SWEBOK Guide.

Towards reliable web applications: ISO 19761

This research adopts a new scenario-based black box testing methodology for testing web applications. It combines a black box testing strategy with the functions (scenarios) measured by the COSMIC-FFP measurement procedure (ISO/IEC 19761 standard) to produce an optimal set of test cases. This testing approach shows its applicability during all the development phases. Moreover, it can be applied during the early development phase once the specifications have been documented as well as after the development phase where we dont have the access to the code. This paper also considers the use of a functional complexity measure for assigning priorities to the generated test cases. Finally, those concepts have been applied on part of Online Banking System as a case study.

Markov Model and Functional Size with Cosmic-Ffp

This research extends the architecture-based software reliability prediction model to the COSMIC-FFP context. This model is based on Markov chains and it is applicable prior to implementation with the ability to build reliability models much earlier at the requirement phase or based on the specifications for the design. In essence, each component of the system is modeled by a discrete time Markov chain. If this can be done, then a probabilistic analysis by Markov chains can be performed to evaluate the product reliability in the early phases of software development and to improve the reliability process for large software systems. This approach of applying a Markov model in the COSMIC-FFP context is illustrated with the railroad crossing case study

Revitalizing the introductory programming course

In this paper we present our approach to revitalizing the introductory level programming course at Zayed University in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). This course has been re-designed to make computer programming fun and accessible to female students who sign up for the IT program with no background in computing and in particular analytical and problem solving skills. The approach has been used at other universities and represents a marked departure from the use of a single programming language to employ multiple programming tools. The results we have obtained confirm the viability of the approach and is inspiring students to spend more time learning how to design and develop interesting applications that appeal to female students. In addition, ZU students have expressed a great deal of satisfaction and responded positively towards the new approach of learning how to program.