article https://www.browserstack.com/guide/static-software-testing-tools

This blog will focus on static testing. Static testing is the inspection of a code  program  without  execution. Static testing is an  early stage of creating a program, where a program is being developed, and code can be adjusted before the final product. A program’s files being reviewed before its release saves a company money, without the program being reworked. Review analysis and static analysis are two different methods for static testing. Informal review is a type of review analysis where team members provide code feedback, while static code analysis for static analysis uses software tools to detect coding errors. Static testing is used  multiple times in  coding a program. When a project is first assigned whether in a professional or academic setting, programmers need to understand the requirements of their projects. Usually after  instructions have been reviewed, coding would be the next step, but  static testing adds an extra step of  checking if  a program has the  documents used for  coding. Throughout the development of a program, a common practice is running the program, whether with unit testing or running a whole program, for a programmer  to know if the program is error free. Static testing at the coding stage can either be feedback from team members, or  different software tools such as Soot and checkstyle. BrowserStack Code Quality tool is one software tool for static testing. In my programming experience, I am used to  having to manually fix my errors. This past week, I was introduced to new visual studio code  software tools for coding errors. BrowserStack Code Quality tool is one tool of automated stack testing, where static testing is done through software tools. 

BrowserStack Code Quality has an assistant that recommends how large classes in a program can be split into smaller classes. BrowserStack Code Quality can be downloaded in either Android studio, Vscode, or Intellij, with a quick program scan with feedback. Another software tool is Checkstyle which only works with Java. Developers using Checkstyle  learn about  errors when writing code, compared to after a program has executed. Developers who are using Checkstyle can create coding  conditions, and  a program is checked for following defined coding conditions. Recently, I learned how to use PMD in Visual Studio Code. PMD  detects logical errors in code such as uninitialized variables, unused code. PMD has a copy paste detector that identifies duplicated code. PMD supports more than 10 different programming languages.

From the blog jonathan's computer journey by Jonathan Mujjumbi and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

Decision table testing is a software testing  technique  that connects  inputs to  outputs. It  utilizes a structured table  for all possible test cases to be analyzed. A  condition represents  a variable or input that  impacts a process, and the action is the outcome influenced by a condition. Condition alternatives define all  possible values for a condition. Each row in  decision table testing is a connection between a  condition and action, with values typically  represented as true or false or yes or no. For instance testing a login system, the conditions are username and password. Action is a successful or  failed  login attempt. Switch table is classified as a type of decision table testing where  a single condition decides a design. A  traffic light system is an instance of decision table testing, with traffic light color being the condition. Action is cars  stopping or  continuing through traffic depending on traffic light color. In  rule based decision table, columns are actions and conditions, and the  row indicates if a condition and action  for a column match the condition and action for a rule.  Another type of decision based testing is a limited decision table. Limited decision tables have a simple and independent condition with an example of a login system. A  login attempt result  is known from a  username and password being correctly entered. Username and password are independent  conditions, as a system identifies username or password is correct, regardless of each other.

First step in creating a decision table is identifying the conditions. A login system will be used for an example. Conditions are valid   username or  password. Once the conditions are constructed, the next step is defining  possible condition alternatives. In a class activity, the conditions were gpa and credits. A condition with either  gpa or credits is allowed  multiple  values  such as gpa > 2.5  or gpa < 4.0. Once condition and condition alternatives have been created, the actions have to  be defined. The next step is setting up  rules for the decision table. After the rules have been set. The table should hold conditions, actions, rules, and condition alternatives. Table should be now filled. The last step to creating a decision table is identifying and deleting  repetitive rules. Prior to taking a software testing class, I had little knowledge on decision table testing. I choose this blog as a chance to expand my  understanding of decision testing. After reading the article, I have a better understanding of decision testing compared to my first learning decision testing.

article: https://www.browserstack.com/guide/decision-table

From the blog CS@Worcester – jonathan&#039;s computer journey by Jonathan Mujjumbi and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

For anyone who codes a  program, it is important to not just have a working program, but to have  a  program  that is   easy to understand, whether you publish your program onto github, or you want to  review  your program after finishing it. Clean code is a term that was first introduced by Robert Cecil Martin, also known as Uncle Bob. He wrote a book that gives best practices and tips for writing understandable and working code. 

When creating formulas for writing code, instead of including numbers in a formula, which could lead to confusion for  a number’s purpose in   a calculation. Creating   a variable that explains it’s purpose in a code makes calculation clear. Comments can explain the meaning of a statement in a  code,  and while comments can  attempt to clear up any confusion for anyone viewing code, it should not be used to explain a obvious statement, but to explain certain actions  in code. For constructing functions, it’s best to have a function perform one action, and if a function is very lengthy, a function should be broken down into multiple functions. 

When writing code with multiple nested if else conditions,  to  make a program easier to understand,  if else conditions should be split  into descriptive functions. As someone who has worked with different programming languages, I would want to use the practices of clean code, to write a working program that I can review and understand if i revisit my work.

What Is Clean Code? A Guide to Principles and Best Practices

From the blog CS@Worcester – jonathan&#039;s computer journey by Jonathan Mujjumbi and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

Scrum is a framework that teams use to organize themselves in a project to reach a common goal. The values that members of a scrum team value are commitment, courage, focus, openness, respect. Scrum team is open to new ideas and opportunities, respecting each other, and have patience for the scrum process, and focusing on time-consumed tasks, and finding space for improvement. 

Scrum deliver a product for customer in a time period called a sprint. Product Backlog is the to-do list for a team which contains the requirements for a project. Product owner, which is one of the scrum roles, is responsible for maintaining and adding updates for the list, removing and adding new requests from customers. Sprint backlog is lists of items from the product backlog that is worked on during the current sprint. Increment is the end product of a sprint. 

The product owner guides the team on the next steps in the scrum process and ensures that the team understands the requirements that a business or client wants. The Scrum leader is responsible for making sure the scrum team works effectively. When working in a scrum team, there are different types of events that the scrum team is involved in.  Sprint planning is when teams estimate how much work needs to be done in a sprint. Daily Scrum is a short meeting where team members plan for the day, and provide updates on challenges experienced, and what work has been done. Sprint Review is the period at the end of the sprint, where the team reviews the work that has been completed, and presents it to stakeholders. Sprint Retrospective is when a team comes together to discuss the sprint result and make adjustments for future scrums. 

This semester in  CS 348, I had learned about scrum. With learning scrum, I was able to see how software team deliver products for clients. 

What is Scrum? – Scrum Methodology Explained – AWS

From the blog CS@Worcester – jonathan&#039;s computer journey by Jonathan Mujjumbi and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

Software testing is verifying that a software product performs the way it is designed to.  The benefits of software testing are preventing errors or bugs from being in a program. When doing software testing, it is best to do testing during the start of a build, during the build, and after the deployment or release of a program. Through doing software testing, developers and companies can ensure there are no defects, or issues before releasing or prompting a product. If there are bugs or defects in company products, there is going to be a loss in customers and money. Some of the different types of software testing include acceptance testing, unit testing, and security testing. Acceptance testing is ensuring that a coding program runs and that there are no errors. Unit testing is testing parts of a program instead of testing a whole program. In  Unix systems programming class, I was exposed to unit testing in homework projects, where I had to write parts of a program and receive a grade for each part, and couldn’t move forward until receiving full credit on a part of a program. Unit testing can lead to fewer errors than acceptance testing. It is a better practice to test your code small bits at a time than to run a whole program. Security testing is ensuring that software programs are safe from hackers that could lead to being denied access to your software, or your software working incorrectly.

Software testing was first developed after the ending of world war two. Computer scientist Tom Kilburn wrote the first piece of software by performing mathematical calculations. Debugging was the main testing strategy at the time. By the 1980’s there were other strategies of software application testing outside of fixing bugs and errors. The process of software testing includes determining a testing method to use, developing test cases or setting up requirements for the test, writing scripts or parts of a program, analyzing test results, and writing a report. For large software programs, there are tools used to complete tasks and work on running tests for different tasks, with instant feedback on what works or not works for a program. Through reporting and analytics, teams can present their results in a dashboard, which would allow everyone to see the overall result of a project. Reporting results show how testing the product leads to the result. 

Blog url: https://www.ibm.com/topics/software-testing

From the blog CS@Worcester – jonathan&#039;s computer journey by Jonathan Mujjumbi and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

For this week’s blog post, I will be focusing on Version control. Version control is a software tool  that helps software teams and programmers keep track  of updates when working on a project. In a software team, there are multiple people in a group and there are multiple changes made  in a project. Multiple users in a team are working on different files under the same project folder, and  through version control  each team mate’s work progress is saved. For software teams and programmers, through version control, updates and changes in a project folder can be traced, and a user can view what lines in a file have been modified, deleted, added. During times when dealing with errors, with  version control  users can track back to where exactly in their code an error is occurring.

When I was choosing a topic for this week, this topic was important to me because I wanted to build upon what I know about git. I am glad that in this course we are going to spend time on git. Over the summer, I worked on a few different software projects. When I was first starting off, I didn’t know much about version control. As time went on, I became familiar with how  version control works. I had used a version control called Git. With git, I was able to use version control in visual studio code. When I was doing these projects, I wished that I had used version control to fix or prevent errors. In  Introduction to programming and in unix programming, we are taught   to test or run code in small bits,  and not build a whole program and run it at once. When I was doing these projects, I was building a whole program and running it, but as time went on, I realized that I should work with simple parts of code at a time. 

Moving forward, I want to double check my code, and I can do that through version control, and make that when working with code to apply the techniques taught to me in previous classes. For software teams, there  is a branch where software teams work independently on parts of a project,  and can merge their parts together. 

Branch can be effective as teammates can work on their parts  of code, make sure there are no errors, and bring together their error free parts of a  program. 

Blog url:  What is version control | Atlassian Git Tutorial

From the blog CS@Worcester – jonathan&#039;s computer journey by Jonathan Mujjumbi and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.