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ECE453/CS447/SE465: Software Testing & Quality Assurance, W09

Course outline handout

I distributed a course outline on the first day of class. Although there will not be major changes to the course outline, you should consider details on this webpage to be authoritative.

General Information

Lectures:
(SE465): Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 11:30-12:20, RCH 305
(ECE453/CS447/CS647): Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 3:30-4:20, RCH 309

Tutorials (to be announced beforehand): (SE465): M1:30-2:20, RCH 305; (ECE/CS) F7:00-7:50, RCH 309

Instructor

Professor Patrick Lam
Office: DC2534
Office Hours: Thursdays 14:00-15:00, or by appointment
Email: p.lam[at]ece.uwaterloo.ca
Phone: Use email instead!

Teaching Assistants

Mehdi Amoui Kalareh
Office: DC2542
Office Hours: Thursdays 15:00-16:00
Email: mamouika[at]uwaterloo.ca
Zarrin Langari (away until March 12)
Office: DC2551A
Office Hours: Tuesdays 15:00-16:00
Email: zlangari[at]cs.uwaterloo.ca
Sen Li
Office: DC2542
Office Hours: Wednesdays 13:00-14:00
Email: s35li[at]engmail.uwaterloo.ca
Mohammad Yazdandoost
Office: DC3727
Office Hours: Tuesdays 13:00-14:00
Email: m.yazdandoost[at]gmail.com

Topics

Coverage, subsumption and infeasibility; graph coverage (includes path and dataflow testing, state-based testing, call-graph based testing, path-based testing); logic coverage (includes decision tables); input space partitioning; syntax-based testing; testing in practice (includes OO testing); non-testing-based software quality assurance (code reviews, pair programming, software verification); software maintenance; testing for performance.

Textbooks

The textbook for the class will be:

Paul Ammann and Jeff Offutt. Introduction to Software Testing. Cambridge University Press, 2008.

This book is available on amazon.ca for $62. I also strongly recommend the following book:

Andreas Zeller. Why Programs Fail: a Guide to Systematic Debugging. Morgan Kaufmann, 2005.

The Zeller book is quite practical and I expect that it will be useful to you in the future as well.

Evaluation

This course includes assignments, midterms, a course project, and a final examination.

2 individual assignments  10% each
Course project (groups)  20%
Midterms10%
Final exam50%

I indend to make the midterm and final open-book, open-notes.