Software development lifecycle, design and testing

Learning objectives

Describe the stages of the program development lifecycle — analysis, design, coding, testing and maintenance — and state what each stage produces for the next one

Compare the waterfall, iterative and rapid application development models, and justify the choice of a model for a project whose requirements are expected to change

Produce design documentation for a solution using structure charts, state-transition diagrams, flowcharts and pseudocode, and explain what each of these shows that the others do not

Select normal, boundary and erroneous test data for a stated condition, predict the expected result for each item, and record the outcomes in a test plan

Distinguish white-box, black-box, integration, alpha, beta and acceptance testing, stating who carries out each one and what it is meant to find

Distinguish corrective, adaptive and perfective maintenance, and explain how clear documentation and a modular design reduce the cost of maintaining a program

Distinguish syntax, logic and run-time errors, and describe how the faults in a program can be brought to light and how they can be prevented

Describe dry run, walkthrough and stub testing, and explain why a test strategy and a test plan are drawn up and what goes into each