http://learnsoftwareprocesses.com All about the processes involved in software development Sun, 29 Jun 2008 10:33:32 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en When we were going in for usability testing, I was part of the team that would evaluate the results from the usability testing, and it was important for me to understand more about the usability testing process. Besides understanding the need for usability testing and the process, it was also ... http://learnsoftwareprocesses.com/2008/06/29/guidelines-for-usability-testing/ Usability testing is a part of the development life cycle that is pretty critical. It is part of the series of steps (along with user testing and beta testing) that validate whether the product (and the features) are actually usable by the actual end users; feedback from this stage ... http://learnsoftwareprocesses.com/2008/06/07/usability-testing-tools/ Usability testing can take the form of several methods and techniques (depending on the situation and need): Cognitive Walkthrough: Performed continually during the development cycle, cognitive workflows try to evaluate the system from a user's thought process that help in decision making (these include the ability to reason as well as ... http://learnsoftwareprocesses.com/2008/06/07/usability-testing-methods/ Suppose you are in a tight development cycle. You have to deliver either a new product, or the next version of an existing product. Getting the features of a product right is always a touch task, given that there are a number of competing features that seem important, and prioritizing ... http://learnsoftwareprocesses.com/2008/06/07/about-usability-testing-and-timing/ BATCH SYSTEMS : They are a set of programs that perform certain activities which do not require any kind of input from the user. Batch systems contain one or more API which perform various tasks. Ex: When something is typed on a word document by pressing a key, same is displayed ... http://learnsoftwareprocesses.com/2008/05/25/types-of-software-systems/ BANKER’S ALGORITHM Consider an example: There are four customers: A, B, C and D, which are analogous to four processes. The credit unit is like the resource The banker himself is the OS Assume each credit unit = Rs. 1000. Not all customers need their maximum credit immediately. Hence only 10 credit units are reserved. Process ... http://learnsoftwareprocesses.com/2008/05/25/deadlock-algorithms/ Deadlock Prevention In order to prevent deadlock, the system is built in such a way that no deadlock occurs. Make sure that at least one of the four conditions in which deadlock can occur does not exist. Attacking Hold and wait : In order to ensure that hold and wait condition never ... http://learnsoftwareprocesses.com/2008/05/25/deadlock-avoidance-and-prevention/ A deadlock is a situation wherein two or more competing actions are waiting for the other to finish, and thus neither ever does. In the computing world deadlock refers to a specific condition when two or more processes are each waiting for another to release a resource, or more than ... http://learnsoftwareprocesses.com/2008/05/25/deadlock-situation/ Usability testing can make a lot of difference to the ultimate success of the products of the company, and needs to be well planned. If you do the test wrong, or have some of the parameters wrong, then this could have negative results for the company (in addition, you could ... http://learnsoftwareprocesses.com/2008/05/16/usability-testing-process/ What is a defect? For a test engineer, a defect is: • Any deviation from a given specification. • Anything that causes user dissatisfaction • Incorrect output • Software is not behaving the way it should behave. Difference between bug, defect and error:- • Software is said to have a bug if the features deviate from the specifications. • Software is said to have ... http://learnsoftwareprocesses.com/2008/05/09/defect-management/