Software Testing Standards Report

This report discusses the national and international standards for software testing, focusing on ANSI and IEEE. It covers the importance of these standards, their scope, key terms, and the relevance of each standard to software testing practices. The report also compares the two standards, highlighting their similarities and differences, and concludes with the significance of adhering to these standards for ensuring software quality and reliability.

Software Testing
National and International Standards for Software Testing
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Software Testing
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Response to Questions.....................................................................................................................3
What is the standard name?.........................................................................................................3
Who holds the copyright for the standard?..................................................................................3
Universities Involved among Acknowledge Contributors............................................................4
What is the Scope of the Standard?.............................................................................................4
Key Terms and Understandings about ANSI and IEEE Standards.............................................4
What does standard do?...............................................................................................................5
Specific Relevance of Standard to Software Testing....................................................................5
Comparison between the Standards Documents..............................................................................6
Commonalities between ANSI Document and IEEE Document..................................................6
Significant Differences in Standards............................................................................................7
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
References........................................................................................................................................9
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Introduction
The national and international standards of any product and service are considered important to
assess their holistic safety, quality and reliability that is highly important for every buyer.
Moreover, there are also some standards that are based on safety of people and these standards
are related to road safety, toy safety and secure medical packaging etc. At government and
regulators basis various new better regulations are being developed. Not only in other fields but
also in IT field these standards are practiced by developers, testers and others who are related to
this field. The purpose of making this report is to discuss about a national and international
standard document for software testing. Here selected national standard document for software
testing is about ANSI and international standard document is IEEE. I will discuss in detail about
these standards for software testing in upcoming paragraphs.
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Response to Questions
In past years, there was no comprehensive set available for software testing standards. But now
there are some useful standards for software testing. Among those national and international
standards ANSI and IEEE for software testing are important to discuss here in this report. A
software is a product for a buyer and before selling that product its overall testing is mandatory
to do at testers and as well as at developers’ end. This testing must be done according to ANSI
and IEEE standards. Before using these standards fundamental knowledge about them is
necessary.
What is the standard name?
The national standards ANSI for software testing stands for American National Standards
Institute. It is a primary industrial standards body in United States of America. ANSI circulates
some software related standards in combination with the IEEE and ASQ (Standards.ieee.org,
2017).
On other side, international standards IEEE for software testing develops standards like Software
Test Documentation, Software Unit Testing and Assurance for Software Quality. The full form
of IEEE is Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (Indiver, 2016).
Who holds the copyright for the standard?
The copyrights of ANSI standards hold by American National Standards Institute. But if I talk
about ANSI Online standards then no portion of these standards is under ANSI Inc. These online
materials have their own original copyright owner. On contrary, the copyrights of IEEE are
managed by its Intellectual Property Rights Office i.e. IPR Office. This department is responsible
for all IEEE related copyright matters, its policies and procedures. For getting any information
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regarding IEEE copyrights and policies, authors and publications have to contact to IPR Office
(Softwaretestinghelp.com, 2017).
Universities Involved among Acknowledge Contributors
In case of ANSI acknowledge contributors the involved universities are Colorado State
University, University of Wisconsin and Cornell University. On flip side, in IEEE acknowledge
contributors, Cambridge University and Harvard University are involved (Ansi.org, 2017).
What is the Scope of the Standard?
According to analysis about ANSI standards on software has wide scope that includes expansion
up to recognition of Singapore Telecommunications Requirements. Moreover, due to ANSI
standards duplication of testing of products have eliminated. On flip side, the scope of IEEE has
been explored up to many areas such as Aerospace, Bioengineering, Computing & Processing,
Robotics and Control Systems and Nuclear Engineering and others (Softwaretestingstandard.org,
2017).
Key Terms and Understandings about ANSI and IEEE Standards
ANSI:
1. ANSI is a private and non-profit organization and it co-ordinates U.S voluntary
standards.
2. The administration of development of U.S. standards and their approval is also done by
ANSI.
3. It provides means for the U.S to put impact on development of regional and international
standards (Bcs.org, 2017).
4. The promotion of awareness of emerging strategic significance of some standard
technologies in U.S global competitiveness is also done by ANSI standards.
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IEEE
1. IEEE publishes scientific and technical literature. Moreover, it organizes conferences on
appropriate technical and scientific matters (Tata, 2017).
2. The technical standards are also developed by this standards and currently 900 standards
are available.
3. IEEE standards are able to identify the leaders of the profession.
What does standard do?
If I talk about ANSI standards then the main goal of this standard is to increase global
attractiveness of U.S Business and quality of life of U.S Business. It is done by promoting and
simplifying voluntary standards and assessment systems. Moreover, safeguard of integrity is also
considered in promotion of standards.
IEEE standards are dedicated to advanced technology for well-being of people. Its main purpose
is to raise innovation at technological level. Besides this, this standard assess the excellence of
products and services that is required by all potential customers.
Specific Relevance of Standard to Software Testing
If I talk about IEEE standards then there is no doubt to say that this standard is relevant for
software testing. This standard specifies the form of a set of documents for eight stages of
software testing and as well as for system testing. Different level of testing plans have defined by
this IEEE standard such as Master Test Plan, Level Test Plan, Level Test Log and Anomaly
Report etc. After completion of this whole testing process, software is considered to be error free
(Ansi.org, 2017).
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On other side, ANSI standard is also relevant for software testing because it sets an appropriate
environment for software testing. This environment includes assessment and improvement of
software processes, development of meaningful test plans and proper organization of testing
efforts. Furthermore, automation of test processes is also supported by ANSI standards.
Comparison between the Standards Documents
As I have selected two essential documents for national standards ANSI and international
standards IEEE. Both documents consist of reliable information about how an efficient software
testing can be implemented. Both documents have different sections that provide important
information. After studying these documents I got to know several important aspects about ANSI
and IEEE. Both standards are made to maintain the overall quality and efficiency of any product
and service that is used by potential customers. As we know various frauds have conducted by
hackers with software solutions and due to this heavy loss of information has faced by software
users. To resolve this problem these software testing are developed that support all possible steps
that should be implemented at testers’ end (Wilber, 2007).
Commonalities between ANSI Document and IEEE Document
There are some similarities among national standard ANSI document and international standard
IEEE document. In both documents, national and international standards regarding software
testing are defined appropriately. Following are some common factors among both documents.
Outline:
First of all, in papers introduction about both standards is given with their importance that why
ANSI and IEEE are required. The historical data is also given about foundation of ANSI and
IEEE standards. From these past records, it becomes easier to know about past efficiency of both
standards (Ieee.org, 2017).
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Key Functions:
This most important concept that I have seen in both documents is regarding key functions of
standards that are important to know by its users. This is an essential information to understand
both standards appropriately.
Scope of Standards
From this segment of documents, I got to know about scope of both standards. IEEE has wider
scope than ANSI standards. There is no such field is left where IEEE is standard is not used.
Software testing is one of the key areas where ANSI and IEEE, both standards are followed.
Guidelines
Before start using ANSI and IEEE standards for software testing purpose, their guidelines are
necessary to consider. In both documents, standards’ guidelines are mentioned properly and
these are easy to understand (Pedersen, Karen, 2013).
Significant Differences in Standards
Besides above discussed similarities among both standard documents, there are also some
differences. The first difference is that in ANSI national standard document its principle
activities are not mentioned. But in IEEE document, it is clearly defined that what principle
activities are implemented by IEEE for handling software testing. In ANSI standard document,
membership process of ANSI, accreditation services and international engagement regarding
information is given. But in IEEE standard document this information is not mentioned.
According IEEE standard document, there is requirement for testers who are able to dedicatedly
improve their skills and also find new ways of testing. On other side, ANSI standards gives
emphasize on this statement that a standard for software testing should be based on functional
specifications and copyrighted source code is also required (Ieee.org, 2017). Furthermore, in
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IEEE standards document both new and old standards are defined clearly but in ANSI document
it is not found.
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Conclusion
In conclusion, both software testing standard documents provide important information. The
given essential aspects regarding software testing should be followed by developers and testers.
These both standards and other standards like ISO are made for better security and integrity of
software solutions. As we know that software testing is important to get a bug free software and
by using ANSI and IEEE standards developers and testers can obtain better outcomes. These
standards are also helpful for solving problem of software testing techniques.
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References
Tata, J. (2017). New Software Testing Standards - ISO/IEC/IEEE 29119. Evoke Technologies
Blog. Retrieved 31 August 2017, from http://www.evoketechnologies.com/blog/new-
software-testing-standards/
Indiver, S. (2016). New Soft Computing Techniques in the Software Testing. International
Journal Of Engineering And Computer Science. http://dx.doi.org/10.18535/ijecs/v5i12.64
Softwaretestinghelp.com. (2017). What is SEI? CMM? ISO? IEEE? ANSI standards? —
Software Testing Help. Retrieved 31 August 2017, from
http://www.softwaretestinghelp.com/what-is-sei-cmm-iso-ieee-ansi-will-it-help/
Softwaretestingstandard.org.(2017). ISO/IEC/IEEE 29119 Software Testing Standard. Retrieved
31 August 2017, from
http://www.softwaretestingstandard.org/29119petitionresponse.php
Ieee.org. (2017). IEEE IEEE Copyright Policy. Retrieved 31 August 2017, from
https://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/copyrightpolicy.html
Ansi.org. (2017). ANSI Code of Ethics. Retrieved 31 August 2017, from
https://www.ansi.org/publicstatements/codeofethics?menuid=1
Wilber, L. (2007). Standards News: Audiologists and ANSI Standards. Acoustics Today, 3(4),
30. http://dx.doi.org/10.1121/1.2961160
Pedersen, Karen. (2013). Understanding IEEE. In-Service Workshop.
Ansi.org. (2017). NIST Expands ANSI’s Scope as Accreditor of Telecommunications
Certification Bodies to Include Singapore Requirements. Retrieved 31 August 2017, from
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https://www.ansi.org/news_publications/news_story?menuid=7&articleid=8f1dcf9f-
d7c6-4908-bc15-5f7ed29b41ab
Ieee.org. (2017). IEEE IEEE Standards. Retrieved 31 August 2017, from
https://www.ieee.org/standards/index.html
Bcs.org. (2017). Standards For Software Testing | The Tester | Specialist Group in Software
Testing | Specialist Groups | Member groups | Membership | BCS - The Chartered
Institute for IT. Retrieved 31 August 2017, from
http://www.bcs.org/content/ConWebDoc/12416
Standards.ieee.org. (2017). IEEE-SA - The IEEE Standards Association - Home. Retrieved 31
August 2017, from http://standards.ieee.org/
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