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Week 8 [Fri, Mar 8th] - Topics

Detailed Table of Contents



Guidance for the item(s) below:

Soon, you will start writing automated Java tests for your project.

First, let us learn such testing fits into an aspect called developer testing of the testing landscape.

[W8.1] Developer Testing

W8.1a

Quality Assurance → Testing → Developer Testing → What

Can explain developer testing

Developer testing is the testing done by the developers themselves as opposed to dedicated testers or end-users.


W8.1b

Quality Assurance → Testing → Developer Testing → Why

Can explain the need for early developer testing

Delaying testing until the full product is complete has a number of disadvantages:

  • Locating the cause of a test case failure is difficult due to the larger search space; in a large system, the search space could be millions of lines of code, written by hundreds of developers! The failure may also be due to multiple inter-related bugs.
  • Fixing a bug found during such testing could result in major rework, especially if the bug originated from the design or during requirements specification i.e. a faulty design or faulty requirements.
  • One bug might 'hide' other bugs, which could emerge only after the first bug is fixed.
  • The delivery may have to be delayed if too many bugs are found during testing.

Therefore, it is better to do early testing, as hinted by the popular rule of thumb given below, also illustrated by the graph below it.

The earlier a bug is found, the easier and cheaper to have it fixed.

Such early testing software is usually, and often by necessity, done by the developers themselves i.e., developer testing.


Exercises:

Implications of developers testing their own code


Cost of bug fixing over time



Guidance for the item(s) below:

The sections below gives an overview of test automation, something used heavily in developer testing.

W8.1c

Quality Assurance → Testing → Test Automation → Test automation using test drivers

Can explain test drivers

A test driver is the code that ‘drives’ the for the purpose of testing i.e. invoking the SUT with test inputs and verifying if the behavior is as expected.

PayrollTest ‘drives’ the Payroll class by sending it test inputs and verifies if the output is as expected.

public class PayrollTest {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {

        // test setup
        Payroll p = new Payroll();

        // test case 1
        p.setEmployees(new String[]{"E001", "E002"});
        // automatically verify the response
        if (p.totalSalary() != 6400) {
            throw new Error("case 1 failed ");
        }

        // test case 2
        p.setEmployees(new String[]{"E001"});
        if (p.totalSalary() != 2300) {
            throw new Error("case 2 failed ");
        }

        // more tests...

        System.out.println("All tests passed");
    }
}

W8.1d

Quality Assurance → Testing → Test Automation → Test automation tools

Can explain test automation tools

JUnit is a tool for automated testing of Java programs. Similar tools are available for other languages and for automating different types of testing.

This is an automated test for a Payroll class, written using JUnit libraries.

    // other test methods

    @Test
    public void testTotalSalary() {
        Payroll p = new Payroll();

        // test case 1
        p.setEmployees(new String[]{"E001", "E002"});
        assertEquals(6400, p.totalSalary());

        // test case 2
        p.setEmployees(new String[]{"E001"});
        assertEquals(2300, p.totalSalary());

        // more tests...
    }

Most modern IDEs have integrated support for testing tools. The figure below shows the JUnit output when running some JUnit tests using the Eclipse IDE.


Guidance for the item(s) below:

Now, let us learn about JUnit, a tool used for automated testing. JUnit is a third-party tool (not included in the JDK). but your tP project is already configured to use JUnit, with the help of Gradle. That means the video tutorial given at the end of the section is mostly not applicable to you, unless you are interested to learn how to set up a non-Gradle project for JUnit.

W8.1e

C++ to Java → JUnit → JUnit: Basic

Can use simple JUnit tests

When writing JUnit tests for a class Foo, the common practice is to create a FooTest class, which will contain various test methods for testing methods of the Foo class.

Suppose we want to write tests for the IntPair class below.

public class IntPair {
    int first;
    int second;

    public IntPair(int first, int second) {
        this.first = first;
        this.second = second;
    }

    /**
     * Returns the result of applying integer division first/second.
     * @throws Exception if second is 0
     */
    public int intDivision() throws Exception {
        if (second == 0){
            throw new Exception("Divisor is zero");
        }
        return first/second;
    }

    @Override
    public String toString() {
        return first + "," + second;
    }
}

Here's a IntPairTest class to match (using JUnit 5).

import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;

import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.assertEquals;
import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.fail;

public class IntPairTest {

    @Test
    public void intDivision_nonZeroDivisor_success() throws Exception {
        // normal division results in an integer answer 2
        assertEquals(2, new IntPair(4, 2).intDivision());

        // normal division results in a decimal answer 1.9
        assertEquals(1, new IntPair(19, 10).intDivision());

        // dividend is zero but devisor is not
        assertEquals(0, new IntPair(0, 5).intDivision());
    }

    @Test
    public void intDivision_zeroDivisor_exceptionThrown() {
        try {
            assertEquals(0, new IntPair(1, 0).intDivision());
            fail(); // the test should not reach this line
        } catch (Exception e) {
            assertEquals("Divisor is zero", e.getMessage());
        }
    }

    @Test
    public void testStringConversion() {
        assertEquals("4,7", new IntPair(4, 7).toString());
    }
}
  • Note how each test method is marked with a @Test annotation.
  • Tests use assertEquals(expected, actual) methods (provided by JUnit) to compare the expected output with the actual output. If they do not match, the test will fail.
    JUnit comes with other similar methods such as assertNull, assertNotNull, assertTrue, assertFalse etc. [more ...]
  • Java code normally use camelCase for method names e.g., testStringConversion but when writing test methods, sometimes another convention is used:
    unitBeingTested_descriptionOfTestInputs_expectedOutcome
    e.g., intDivision_zeroDivisor_exceptionThrown
  • There are several ways to verify the code throws the correct exception. The second test method in the example above shows one of the simpler methods. If the exception is thrown, it will be caught and further verified inside the catch block. But if it is not thrown as expected, the test will reach fail() line and will fail as a result.

What to test for when writing tests? While test case design techniques is a separate topic altogether, it should be noted that the goal of these tests is to catch bugs in the code. Therefore, test using inputs that can trigger a potentially buggy path in the code. Another way to approach this is, to write tests such that if a future developer modified the method to unintentionally introduce a bug into it, at least one of the test should fail (thus alerting that developer to the mistake immediately).

In the example above, the IntPairTest class tests the IntPair#intDivision(int, int) method using several inputs, some even seemingly attempting to 'trick' the method into producing a wrong result. If the method still produces the correct output for such 'tricky' inputs (as well as 'normal' outputs), we can have a higher confidence on the method being correctly implemented.
However, also note that the current test cases do not (but probably should) test for the inputs (0, 0), to confirm that it throws the expected exception.


Resources:

Follow up notes for the item(s) above:

Quoting from tP instructions:


Guidance for the item(s) below:

As you will be updating documentation of your project soon, here are some guidelines to help you with that.

[W8.2] Writing Developer Documents

W8.2a

Implementation → Documentation → Introduction → What

Can explain the two types of developer docs

Developer-to-developer documentation can be in one of two forms:

  1. Documentation for developer-as-user: Software components are written by developers and reused by other developers, which means there is a need to document how such components are to be used. Such documentation can take several forms:
    • API documentation: APIs expose functionality in small-sized, independent and easy-to-use chunks, each of which can be documented systematically.
    • Tutorial-style instructional documentation: In addition to explaining functions/methods independently, some higher-level explanations of how to use an API can be useful.
  1. Documentation for developer-as-maintainer: There is a need to document how a system or a component is designed, implemented and tested so that other developers can maintain and evolve the code. Writing documentation of this type is harder because of the need to explain complex internal details. However, given that readers of this type of documentation usually have access to the source code itself, only some information needs to be included in the documentation, as code (and code comments) can also serve as a complementary source of information.

Another view proposed by Daniele Procida in this article is as follows:

There is a secret that needs to be understood in order to write good software documentation: there isn’t one thing called documentation, there are four. They are: tutorials, how-to guides, explanation and technical reference. They represent four different purposes or functions, and require four different approaches to their creation. Understanding the implications of this will help improve most software documentation - often immensely. ...

TUTORIALS

A tutorial:

  • is learning-oriented
  • allows the newcomer to get started
  • is a lesson

Analogy: teaching a small child how to cook

HOW-TO GUIDES

A how-to guide:

  • is goal-oriented
  • shows how to solve a specific problem
  • is a series of steps

Analogy: a recipe in a cookery book

EXPLANATION

An explanation:

  • is understanding-oriented
  • explains
  • provides background and context

Analogy: an article on culinary social history

REFERENCE

A reference guide:

  • is information-oriented
  • describes the machinery
  • is accurate and complete

Analogy: a reference encyclopedia article

Software documentation (applies to both user-facing and developer-facing) is best kept in a text format for ease of version tracking. A writer-friendly source format is also desirable as non-programmers (e.g., technical writers) may need to author/edit such documents. As a result, formats such as Markdown, AsciiDoc, and PlantUML are often used for software documentation.


Exercises:

Statements about API documentation




Guidance for the item(s) below:

Software engineers often have to write developer documentation to explain their work to others. One important objective of developer documentation is to explain the design and the implementation of the software, which usually uses diagrams as models of the design being described.

Let's learn what models are, and how they are useful even beyond mere documentation.

[W8.3] Design: Models

W8.3a

Design → Introduction → What

Can explain what is software design

Design is the creative process of transforming the problem into a solution; the solution is also called design. -- 📖 Software Engineering Theory and Practice, Shari Lawrence; Atlee, Joanne M. Pfleeger

Software design has two main aspects:

  • Product/external design: designing the external behavior of the product to meet the users' requirements. This is usually done by product designers with input from business analysts, user experience experts, user representatives, etc.
  • Implementation/internal design: designing how the product will be implemented to meet the required external behavior. This is usually done by software architects and software engineers.

W8.3b

Design → Modelling → Introduction → What

Can explain models

A model is a representation of something else.

A class diagram is a model that represents a software design.

A model provides a simpler view of a complex entity because a model captures only a selected aspect. This omission of some aspects implies models are abstractions.

A class diagram captures the structure of the software design but not the behavior.

Multiple models of the same entity may be needed to capture it fully.

In addition to a class diagram (or even multiple class diagrams), a number of other diagrams may be needed to capture various interesting aspects of the software.


W8.3c

Design → Modelling → Introduction → How

Can explain how models are used

In software development, models are useful in several ways:

a) To analyze a complex entity related to software development.

Some examples of using models for analysis:

  1. Models of the can be built to aid the understanding of the problem to be solved.
  2. When planning a software solution, models can be created to figure out how the solution is to be built. An architecture diagram is such a model.

b) To communicate information among stakeholders. Models can be used as a visual aid in discussions and documentation.

Some examples of using models to communicate:

  1. You can use an architecture diagram to explain the high-level design of the software to developers.
  2. A business analyst can use a use case diagram to explain to the customer the functionality of the system.
  3. A class diagram can be reverse-engineered from code so as to help explain the design of a component to a new developer.

c) As a blueprint for creating software. Models can be used as instructions for building software.

Some examples of using models as blueprints:

  1. A senior developer draws a class diagram to propose a design for an OOP software and passes it to a junior programmer to implement.
  2. A software tool allows users to draw UML models using its interface and the tool automatically generates the code based on the model.
Model Driven Development extra


Exercises:

Statements about models


Explain usage of models in a class project




Guidance for the item(s) below:

[W8.4] Class/Object Diagrams: Basics

W8.4a

Design → Modelling → Modelling Structure → OO structures

Can explain structure modeling of OO solutions

An OO solution is basically a network of objects interacting with each other. Therefore, it is useful to be able to model how the relevant objects are 'networked' together inside a software i.e. how the objects are connected together.

Given below is an illustration of some objects and how they are connected together. Note: the diagram uses an ad-hoc notation.

Note that these object structures within the same software can change over time.

Given below is how the object structure in the previous example could have looked like at a different time.

However, object structures do not change at random; they change based on a set of rules set by the designer of that software. Those rules that object structures need to follow can be illustrated as a class structure i.e. a structure that exists among the relevant classes.

Here is a class structure (drawn using an ad-hoc notation) that matches the object structures given in the previous two examples. For example, note how this class structure does not allow any connection between Genre objects and Author objects, a rule followed by the two object structures above.

UML Object Diagrams model object structures. UML Class Diagrams model class structures.

Here is an object diagram for the above example:

And here is the class diagram for it:


W8.4b

Design → Modelling → Modelling Structure → Class diagrams - basic

Can use basic-level class diagrams

Contents related to UML diagrams in the panels given below belong to a different chapter (i.e., the chapter dedicated to UML); they have been embedded here for convenience.

Classes form the basis of class diagrams.

UML Class Diagrams → Introduction → What

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UML Class Diagrams → Classes → What

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UML Class Diagrams → Class-Level Members → What

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Associations are the main connections among the classes in a class diagram.

OOP Associations → What

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UML Class Diagrams → Associations → What

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UML Class Diagrams → Associations as Attributes

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The most basic class diagram is a bunch of classes with some solid lines among them to represent associations, such as this one.

An example class diagram showing associations between classes.

In addition, associations can show additional decorations such as association labels, association roles, multiplicity and navigability to add more information to a class diagram.

UML Class Diagrams → Associations → Labels

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UML Class Diagrams → Associations → Roles

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OOP Associations → Navigability

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UML Class Diagrams → Associations → Navigability

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OOP Associations → Multiplicity

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UML Class Diagrams → Associations → Multiplicity

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Here is the same class diagram shown earlier but with some additional information included:


Exercises:

Which association notations are shown?


Explain Class Diagram


Draw Class Diagram for Box etc.



Guidance for the item(s) below:

Object diagrams complement class diagrams, and therefore, they are covered together with class diagrams.

W8.4c

Design → Modelling → Modelling Structure → Object diagrams

Can use basic object diagrams

UML → Object Diagrams → Introduction

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Object diagrams can be used to complement class diagrams. For example, you can use object diagrams to model different object structures that can result from a design represented by a given class diagram.

UML → Object Diagrams → Objects

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UML → Object Diagrams → Associations

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Exercises:

Draw an Object Diagram for Box etc.



W8.4d

Tools → UML → Object versus class diagrams

Can distinguish between class diagrams and object diagrams

Compared to the notation for class diagrams, object diagrams differ in the following ways:

  • Show objects instead of classes:
    • Instance name may be shown
    • There is a : before the class name
    • Instance and class names are underlined
  • Methods are omitted
  • Multiplicities are omitted. Reason: an association line in an object diagram represents a connection to exactly one object (i.e., the multiplicity is always 1).

Furthermore, multiple object diagrams can correspond to a single class diagram.

Both object diagrams are derived from the same class diagram shown earlier. In other words, each of these object diagrams shows ‘an instance of’ the same class diagram.

When the class diagram has an inheritance relationship, the object diagram should show either an object of the parent class or the child class, but not both.

Suppose Employee is a child class of the Person class. The class diagram will be as follows:

Now, how do you show an Employee object named jake?

  • This is not correct, as there should be only one object.

  • This is OK.

  • This is OK, as jake is a Person too. That is, we can show the parent class instead of the child class if the child class doesn't matter to the purpose of the diagram (i.e., the reader of this diagram will not need to know that jake is in fact an Employee).

Association labels/roles can be omitted unless they add value (e.g., showing them is useful if there are multiple associations between the two classes in concern -- otherwise you wouldn't know which association the object diagram is showing)

Consider this class diagram and the object diagram:

We can clearly see that both Adam and Eve lives in hall h1 (i.e., OK to omit the association label lives in) but we can't see if History is Adam's major or his minor (i.e., the diagram should have included either an association label or a role there). In contrast, we can see Eve is an English major.


Exercises:

Which class diagrams match the object diagram?



W8.4e

Tools → UML → Notes

Can use UML notes

UML notes can augment UML diagrams with additional information. These notes can be shown connected to a particular element in the diagram or can be shown without a connection. The diagram below shows examples of both.

Example:



Association Classes

W8.4f

Paradigms → OOP → Associations → Association classes

Can explain the meaning of association classes

An association class represents additional information about an association. It is a normal class but plays a special role from a design point of view.

A Man class and a Woman class are linked with a ‘married to’ association and there is a need to store the date of marriage. However, that data is related to the association rather than specifically owned by either the Man object or the Woman object. In such situations, an additional association class can be introduced, e.g. a Marriage class, to store such information.

Implementing association classes

There is no special way to implement an association class. It can be implemented as a normal class that has variables to represent the endpoint of the association it represents.

In the code below, the Transaction class is an association class that represents a transaction between a Person who is the seller and another Person who is the buyer.

class Transaction {

    //all fields are compulsory
    Person seller;
    Person buyer;
    Date date;
    String receiptNumber;

    Transaction(Person seller, Person buyer, Date date, String receiptNumber) {
        //set fields
    }
}

Exercises:

Which are suitable as an Association Class?



W8.4g

Tools → UML → Class Diagrams → Association Classes → Association classes

Can interpret association classes in class diagrams

Association classes are denoted as a connection to an association link using a dashed line as shown below.

In this example Loan is an association class because it stores information about the borrows association between the User and the Book.



Guidance for the item(s) below:

Coordinating a team project is not easy. Given below are some very basic tools and techniques that are often used in planning, scheduling, and tracking projects.

[W8.5] Project Mgt: Scheduling and Tracking

W8.5a

Project Management → Project Planning → Milestones

Can explain milestones

A milestone is the end of a stage which indicates significant progress. You should take into account dependencies and priorities when deciding on the features to be delivered at a certain milestone.

Each intermediate product release is a milestone.

In some projects, it is not practical to have a very detailed plan for the whole project due to the uncertainty and unavailability of required information. In such cases, you can use a high-level plan for the whole project and a detailed plan for the next few milestones.

Milestones for the Minesweeper project, iteration 1

Day Milestones
Day 1 Architecture skeleton completed
Day 3 ‘new game’ feature implemented
Day 4 ‘new game’ feature tested

W8.5b

Project Management → Project Planning → Buffers

Can explain buffers

A buffer is time set aside to absorb any unforeseen delays. It is very important to include buffers in a software project schedule because effort/time estimations for software development are notoriously hard. However, do not inflate task estimates to create hidden buffers; have explicit buffers instead. Reason: With explicit buffers, it is easier to detect incorrect effort estimates which can serve as feedback to improve future effort estimates.


W8.5c

Project Management → Project Planning → Issue trackers

Can explain issue trackers

Keeping track of project tasks (who is doing what, which tasks are ongoing, which tasks are done etc.) is an essential part of project management. In small projects, it may be possible to keep track of tasks using simple tools such as online spreadsheets or general-purpose/light-weight task tracking tools such as Trello. Bigger projects need more sophisticated task tracking tools.

Issue trackers (sometimes called bug trackers) are commonly used to track task assignment and progress. Most online project management software such as GitHub, SourceForge, and BitBucket come with an integrated issue tracker.

A screenshot from the Jira Issue tracker software (Jira is part of the BitBucket project management tool suite):


W8.5d

Project Management → Project Planning → Work breakdown structure

Can explain work breakdown structures

A Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) depicts information about tasks and their details in terms of subtasks. When managing projects, it is useful to divide the total work into smaller, well-defined units. Relatively complex tasks can be further split into subtasks. In complex projects, a WBS can also include prerequisite tasks and effort estimates for each task.

The high level tasks for a single iteration of a small project could look like the following:

Task ID Task Estimated Effort Prerequisite Task
A Analysis 1 man day -
B Design 2 man day A
C Implementation 4.5 man day B
D Testing 1 man day C
E Planning for next version 1 man day D

The effort is traditionally measured in man hour/day/month i.e. work that can be done by one person in one hour/day/month. The Task ID is a label for easy reference to a task. Simple labeling is suitable for a small project, while a more informative labeling system can be adopted for bigger projects.

An example WBS for a game development project.

Task ID Task Estimated Effort Prerequisite Task
A High level design 1 man day -
B Detail design
  1. User Interface
  2. Game Logic
  3. Persistency Support
2 man day
  • 0.5 man day
  • 1 man day
  • 0.5 man day
A
C Implementation
  1. User Interface
  2. Game Logic
  3. Persistency Support
4.5 man day
  • 1.5 man day
  • 2 man day
  • 1 man day
  • B.1
  • B.2
  • B.3
D System Testing 1 man day C
E Planning for next version 1 man day D

All tasks should be well-defined. In particular, it should be clear as to when the task will be considered done.

Some examples of ill-defined tasks and their better-defined counterparts:

Bad Better
more coding implement component X
do research on UI testing find a suitable tool for testing the UI

Exercises:

Which one is not a well-defined task?



Guidance for the item(s) below:

GANTT Charts and PERT charts are popular tools in the project management domain but they are rarely useful in small software projects. Hence, they are not included in CS2113 syllabus but it is useful to know at least their names and how they look like.

W8.5e : OPTIONAL

Project Management → Project Planning → Gantt charts


W8.5f : OPTIONAL

Project Management → Project Planning → PERT charts


Guidance for the item(s) below:

This topic is included in the syllabus just to let you know that teams can be structured in different ways.

Which of them is closest to the structure of your team?

W8.5g

Project Management → Teamwork → Team structures

Can explain common team structures

Given below are three commonly used team structures in software development. Irrespective of the team structure, it is a good practice to assign roles and responsibilities to different team members so that someone is clearly in charge of each aspect of the project. In comparison, the ‘everybody is responsible for everything’ approach can result in more chaos and hence slower progress.

Egoless team

In this structure, every team member is equal in terms of responsibility and accountability. When any decision is required, consensus must be reached. This team structure is also known as a democratic team structure. This team structure usually finds a good solution to a relatively hard problem as all team members contribute ideas.

However, the democratic nature of the team structure bears a higher risk of falling apart due to the absence of an authority figure to manage the team and resolve conflicts.

Chief programmer team

Frederick Brooks proposed that software engineers learn from the medical surgical team in an operating room. In such a team, there is always a chief surgeon, assisted by experts in other areas. Similarly, in a chief programmer team structure, there is a single authoritative figure, the chief programmer. Major decisions, e.g. system architecture, are made solely by him/her and obeyed by all other team members. The chief programmer directs and coordinates the effort of other team members. When necessary, the chief will be assisted by domain specialists e.g. business specialists, database experts, network technology experts, etc. This allows individual group members to concentrate solely on the areas in which they have sound knowledge and expertise.

The success of such a team structure relies heavily on the chief programmer. Not only must he/she be a superb technical hand, he/she also needs good managerial skills. Under a suitably qualified leader, such a team structure is known to produce successful work.

Strict hierarchy team

At the opposite extreme of an egoless team, a strict hierarchy team has a strictly defined organization among the team members, reminiscent of the military or a bureaucratic government. Each team member only works on his/her assigned tasks and reports to a single “boss”.

In a large, resource-intensive, complex project, this could be a good team structure to reduce communication overhead.


Exercises:

Which team structure is the most suitable for a school project?