FIT5171 · System validation and verification, quality and standards

Overview

This unit covers the core software engineering practices used to manage, evaluate, and improve software quality. It introduces validation, verification, testing, defect analysis, quality assurance, and software quality engineering as applied across contemporary software development lifecycles. You learn how to design and justify testing strategies, develop automated tests, use quality evidence such as coverage, metrics, static analysis, and mutation testing, and communicate defects and release risks in complex software systems. The unit also considers modern quality infrastructure, including CI/CD workflows, regression testing, quality gates, and responsible use of AI-assisted testing practices. It introduces selected quality considerations for emerging software systems, including cloud-based and AI-enabled systems.

Offerings

Assessment

The Handbook does not list a final examination among the assessment items. That is not a guarantee there is none.

Assessment details may change. Please refer to the assessment information in Moodle closer to the start of the teaching period.

Requisites

Learning outcomes

1. Explain the importance of quality assurance in software engineering;
2. Articulate the role of validation and verification methods in the system development life cycle; key issues in software testing, testing levels and testing techniques;
3. Categorise and apply selection and combination of techniques and test related measures;
4. Measure, evaluate and analyse software under test using different quality and complexity metrics;
5. Develop adequate test cases to help detect software system defects using industry-strength IDEs, unit testing frameworks such as JUnit, code coverage tools such as Cobertura, and other similar products;
6. Implement continuous integration (CI) at unit, integration & system testing level using a CI server such as Jenkins to automatically run regression test suites on the system under test.

Workload

Minimum total expected workload to achieve the learning outcomes for this unit is 144 hours per semester typically comprising a mixture of scheduled online and face to face learning activities and independent study. Independent study may include associated reading and preparation for scheduled teaching activities.

Student experience, not official rules. Nothing here changes what the Handbook says.