Observations on Software Testing Practice

This thesis investigates factors that affect software testing practice. The thesis consists of empirical studies, in which the affecting factors were analyzed and interpreted using quantitative and qualitative methods. First, the Delphi method was used to specify the scope of the thesis. Secondly, for the quantitative analysis 40industry experts from 30 organizational units (OUs) were interviewed. The survey method was used to explore factors that affect software testing practice. Conclusions were derived using correlation and regression analysis. Thirdly, from these 30 OUs, five were further selected for an in-depth case study. The data was collected through 41 semi-structured interviews. The affecting factors and their relationships were interpreted with qualitative analysis using grounded theory as the research method. The practice of software testing was analyzed from the process improvement and knowledge management viewpoints. The qualitative and quantitativeresults were triangulated to increase the validity of the thesis. Results suggested that testing ought to be adjusted according to the business orientation of the OU; the business orientation affects the testing organization and knowledge management strategy, and the business orientation andthe knowledge management strategy affect outsourcing. As a special case, the complex relationship between testing schedules and knowledge transfer is discussed. The results of this thesis can be used in improvingtesting processes and knowledge management in software testing.

Observations on Software Project Deviations

Software projects have proved to be troublesome to be implemented and as the size of software keeps increasing it is more and more important to follow-up the projects. The proportion of succeeded software projects is still quite low in spite of the research and the development of the project control methodologies. The success and failure factors of projects are known, as well as the project risks but nevertheless the projects still have problems with keeping the schedule and the budget and achieving the defined functionality and adequate quality. The purpose of this thesis was to find out what deviations are there in projects at the moment, what causes them, and what is measured in projects. Also project deviation was defined in the viewpoint of literature and field experts. The analysis was made using a qualitative research approach. It was found out that there are still deviations in software projects with schedule, budget, quality, requirements, documenting, effort, and resources. In addition also changes in requirements were identified. It was also found out that for example schedule deviations can be affected by reducing the size of a task and adding measurements.

Intra-plant variation for progress of cell division in developing oat grains : a preliminary study

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