Software Testing Standards: An Article Review and Analysis Report

This report presents an article review focused on software testing standards, specifically examining the ISO/IEC 12207 standard for software verification and validation. The review explores the standard's scope, intent, key terms, and application within the software development life cycle, including acquisition, supply, development, operation, and maintenance phases. The report addresses specific questions related to the standard, such as its copyright holder, contributors, and relevance to software testing. It highlights commonalities and differences between the standard and the reviewed research paper, emphasizing the importance of standardization in ensuring software quality and adherence to industry best practices. The conclusion stresses the significance of software testing processes and standardization for businesses to ensure customer satisfaction and software quality.

Running head: ARTICLE REVIEW – SOFTWARE TESTING
Article Review – Software Testing
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1ARTICLE REVIEW – SOFTWARE TESTING
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Introduction to standards and brief description of research paper and chosen standard........2
Responses to questions for the standard.................................................................................3
Listing and a discussion of commonalities and differences between the two documents.....6
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................7
References..................................................................................................................................8

2ARTICLE REVIEW – SOFTWARE TESTING
Introduction
One of the most common occurrences in the phases of software development that is
seen to be in vogue from the aspects of business is the phenomenon of Software Testing. This
procedure is valuable for both from the technical and the business aspects when it comes to
the evaluation of product quality, which in this case is the end product of the software
presented to the customers. Software Testing is mostly regarded as the quality assurance
checking of the software before it is presented as the end product to the customers.
Previously, it was not considered much of an important procedure to follow through during a
software development life cycle in a business organization before it was presented to the
customers as an end product (IEEE Computer Society, 1998). It was only brought into the
software development life cycle when it was found that the customers started to complaint
against the quality of the software presented to them. The utility of the software testing
phases and the requirement of their standardization methods would be thus be reviewed
through an article that would present the software testing standardization methods.
Introduction to standards and brief description of research paper and chosen
standard
The presented paper for the review of the article mostly focuses of the standardization
process of Software Verification and Validation that helps in the determination of the
software product development and it helps in the confirmation of the entire process of
development, justifying every step of the development process to find out if every process in
the development phase is up to the mark or satisfactory as per the requirements of the
customers and the software provides proper usability and ease of use to the customers as well.
The standardization method that validates and verifies a software product addresses every

3ARTICLE REVIEW – SOFTWARE TESTING
phase within a software development life cycle including the phases like acquisition, supply,
development and maintenance.
The paper also describes that the standardization method makes it easier for the
business organization to keep records of all the stages in the development life cycle that
determines if the quality and requirement of the software development is maintained at every
stage of the development process. The V&V process or the Verification and Validation
process is adhered to various standardization but this particular paper chose to describe the
ISO/IEEC 12207 standardization method. The paper describes the utility of the standards and
also the ways by which this needs to be implemented to find out the validity of the
development process in which the quality of the software would be considered as a
standardized one. The standardization that has been described in this particular paper is
dependent on the establishment of a particular framework that forms the entire verification
and validation process for the software development process. The development phase
included in this standardization process includes the software development life cycle phase
consisting pf the acquisition, development, supply, operation and maintenance. The
standardization phase also describes the task for verifying and validating the tasks in the
development phase as per both the input and output notifications prescribed by the
development phase.
Responses to questions for the standard
What is the standard name?
The chosen standard name that has been presented in this particular article has been
declared as the standardization phase for verifying the software quality through the
Validation and Verification or V&V phases, namely, the ISO / IEEC 12207 standardization.

4ARTICLE REVIEW – SOFTWARE TESTING
Who holds the copyright for the standard?
The owner of the copyright for this particular standardization phase is described in
this paper as the Institute of Electronics Engineers Incorporations affiliated to the United
States of America.
Amongst the acknowledged contributors to the document, which universities were involved
(if any)?
Other than the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Incorporations
affiliated to the United States of America, there are other contributors to this particular
standardization method as well that are acknowledged to be the Software Engineering
Standards Committee (Wichmann & Cox, 1992). This institute is regarded in this case as they
have been sponsoring the entire research for building up the article and the research for its
validation, which is considered to review for this particular report.
What is the scope or intent of the standard?
The scope and the intent of this standardization method has been clearly described in
this particular paper in an elaborate way. The scope is clear to its field of application as per
the methods adopted to software verification and validation. The intent of this paper is to
validate the process behind the software development technique and how every stage of the
software development needs to abide by the standardization and laws according to the
specified standard throughout each and every phase of the software development stages
(Wichmann & Cox, 1992). Through this standardization methods, a set of specified standards
would provide a clear insight about the development phase to find out if the development
phase is abiding by the specific set requirements for development of the end product, if the

5ARTICLE REVIEW – SOFTWARE TESTING
software would be able to be developed as per the set standards and would be able to be used
according to the requirements of the end users.
What are key terms and understandings needed for the standard to be understood and
applied?
Since this is a research paper specifying the standardization of the formats used for
the Validation and Verification of the Software development phase, there are certain
keywords that the paper suggests which might not that easy to be heard in the day to day life.
To understand the research done in this phase, it is required that the understanding of this key
terms are verified and any reader going through the paper.
First key term to be described in this context would be the reusable software.
Reusable software is the one that needs not be formulated just once through the
developmental phases, but it can be developed many a times given the single instance of the
development (Wichmann & Cox, 1992).
The next key terms described in this regard are the phases of the software
development, which includes accusation, supply, development, operation and maintenance.
These are the processes that goes on one after another to develop a fully functional software
throughout the process. All the phases need to be evaluated with the standardization process
to understand the usability of the software and the validation of the customer requirements.
In your own words, what does application of the standard result in? Or, in other words,
what does the standard do?
The discussion above in the report describes what the standardization phase intends to
do, however, it also needs to be described in details about the results after the application of
the standard. This is the standard that makes sure that the development of a software justifies

6ARTICLE REVIEW – SOFTWARE TESTING
the requirement of the customers and verifies ease of use throughout every phase of the
developmental procedure. This phase also helps in detection of any human error throughout
the phases since the standard fulfils the checking of all the development phases one after
another. If error is found in any of the developmental phase, there is a scope to rectify them
and enhance the development immediately. The management of the process or product
development is also facilitated by this phase.
Finally, what specific relevance to software testing is the standard?
This specific standard is especially related to the process of software testing since it
collects the information about the phases in the development of the software to find out if the
developmental phase is following all the relevant standardizations mentioned and affiliated
by the standardization format. If it is found that the phases do not abide by the
standardization process, it also may occur that the software may result into a faulty one and
thus it can be considered an error that needs to be rectified as soon as it is found. Only this
will validate the end product of the software as a quality development of product.
Listing and a discussion of commonalities and differences between the two
documents
There lie commonalities as well as differences in the chosen standard and the research
paper that has been selected to be reviewed (IEEE Computer Society, 1998). In both the
cases, the topic is to enhance the quality of the way by which a software is developed, which
forms the commonality between the two. However, on the other hand, the research article
talks about the research behind the standard to find out the rationale behind using the
standard during the software verification and validation procedure, where on the other hand,
the chosen IEEE standard speaks about how the procedure is done to ensure that in every way

7ARTICLE REVIEW – SOFTWARE TESTING
the development of the software ensures topmost quality for development of the software
(Wichmann & Cox, 1992).
Conclusion
Therefore, it can be concluded from the review of the articles that the software testing
process involves certain legalized standards that is extremely important for the development
of a software. Previously, the software development was only considered to find out the
errors after they were pointed out by the customers. It was at that point of time that the
software testing process had been considered to be mandatory in a business process when
there were continuous complaints were found from the end of the customers, as a result of the
lack of software testing processing from the life cycle of the software development. During
that time, the business organizations started to acknowledge the utility of the software testing
procedures as well as the standardization of the testing format as well. The review of the
report clarifies the utility of the standardization process, answers the questions specified for
the validation of the standard and finds out the differences and commonalities between the
other standards validated for software testing.

8ARTICLE REVIEW – SOFTWARE TESTING
References
IEEE Computer Society. (1998). IEEE Standard for Software. The Institute of Electrical and
Electronics Engineers, Inc.
Wichmann, B. A., & Cox, M. G. (1992). Problems and strategies for software component
testing standards. Software Testing, Verification and Reliability, 2(4), 167-185.