MTAT.03.243 – Software Engineering Management
Written Exam – 22 May 2013
Important Notes:

The exam is open‐book and open‐laptop. Web browsing is allowed, but you are not allowed
to use e‐mail clients nor Instant Messaging clients, nor to share any information “live” with
anybody inside or outside the exam room.

At the end of the exam you must submit both the question sheets and your answer sheets.
To avoid that any of your solutions get lost, make sure to write your name and student ID on
each sheet of paper that you submit. Also, please number the pages on your answer sheets.

Write clearly. Answers that are illegible cannot be counted as correct answers. Only answers
written in English will be marked.
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PART 1: Multiple-Choice Questionnaire (20 marks + 2 bonus marks)
Note: For Part 1, please check boxes on the separate questionnaire answer sheet. Read carefully
before you answer and observe instructions carefully!
The following questions (up to question Q-10) have exactly one correct answer, thus, you must
check exactly one answer check-box. If you think that more than one answer is correct, choose the
answer which seems to be more correct/suitable/relevant. Questions Q-09 and Q-10 are bonus
questions.
Q-01 (1.5 marks): Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) is …
Answer choice:
A:
A process assessment methodology
B:
An element of the ISO 9000 standard family
C:
A systematic approach to Software Process Improvement (SPI)
D:
A measurement system
Q-02 (1.5 marks): According to Frederick Winslow Taylor’s book «Principles of scientific
management» (1911), the responsibility of managers is to:
Answer choice:
A:
Earn as much money as possible
B:
Apply scientific principles when designing and planning the tasks of the workers
C:
Decide which workers should receive a bonus
D:
Increase the company’s market share
Q-03 (1.5 marks): The purpose of Descriptive Process Modeling is to …
Answer choice:
A:
Discuss the validity of an existing process model
B:
Distribute process models within the organization
C:
Describe process models verbally
D:
Develop a process model that accurately represents the actually performed processes
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Q-04 (1.5 marks): The ISO 12207 standard (Software Lifecycle Processes) defines the default
reference process model of the …
Answer choice:
A:
SPICE Process Assessment method
B:
CMMI Process Assessment method
C:
PROFES Software Process Improvement method
D:
QIP (Quality Improvement Process)
Q-05 (1.5 marks): What is the goal of the Sprint Review Meeting in SCRUM?
Answer choice:
A:
Improve team collaboration and the application of SCRUM
B:
Improve the application of SCRUM
C:
Demonstration/Assessment of Sprint work results and approval by the Product Owner
D:
Find defects in the shippable code
Q-06 (1.5 marks): Which US-based company developed the Six-Sigma method in the 1990s?
Answer choice:
A:
Motorola
B:
IBM
C:
Apple
D:
Microsoft
Q-07 (1.5 marks): What is the advantage of blocking in controlled experiments?
Answer choice:
A:
It balances the number of members in the experimental and control groups
B:
It helps identify outliers
C:
It doesn’t have any advantages
D:
It reduces variance and thus increases statistical power
Q-08 (1.5 marks): Which of the following statements is incorrect?
Answer choice:
A:
According to standard ISO 9126, ’Usability’ is a quality characteristic (attribute) of software.
B:
’Usability’ of software can be measured in many different ways.
C:
Both ’Usability’ and ’Reliability’ are entities in the context of measurement.
D:
’Software’ is an entity in the context of measurement.
Q-09 (1 mark - bonus): The six Ps of Software Engineering Management are …
Answer choice:
A:
Products, Processes, People, Plans, Projects, Programs
B:
Power, Processes, People, Plans, Projects, Programs
C:
Purpose, Processes, People, Plans, Projects, Programs
D:
Plans, Processes, People, Participation, Projects, Power
Q-10 (1 mark - bonus): Which of the following is essential for SCRUM but not for XP (Extr. Progr.)?
Answer choice:
A:
A role model
B:
Pair-Programming
C:
Test-Driven Development
D:
Customer involvement
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The following questions (up to question Q-14) can have more than one correct answer. You must
check all correct answer choices to get full marks. You can get partial marks, if you check some of
the correct answer choices. You will get a penalty, if you check an incorrect answer choice but you
don’t get a penalty, if you miss a correct answer choice. Overall, the lowest possible mark you can
get on a question is 0 (i.e., even if everything you check is wrong, you won’t get a negative mark)
Q-11 (2 marks): Descriptive Process Models support Measurement by …
Answer choice:
A:
Helping to identify and define entities that shall be measured
B:
Defining measures
C:
Helping to identify and define responsibilities (roles) for data collection and data validation
D:
Prescribing measurement activities
Q-12 (2 marks): Which of the following is essential for XP (Extreme Programming) but not for
SCRUM?
Answer choice:
A:
A role model
B:
Pair-Programming
C:
Test-Driven Development
D:
Sprint Burn-down Chart
Q-13 (2 marks): What is wrong in the following GQM goal definition?
GQM goal definition: “Analyze the <test process duration> for the purpose of <characterization>
with respect to <increase> from the viewpoint of the <test team> in the environment of <project X,
organization Y>.
Answer choice:
A:
<test process duration>
B:
<characterization>
C:
<increase>
D:
<test team>
Q-14 (2 marks): Key elements of scientific work are observations (empirical data), laws and
theories. Which of the following statements regarding these key elements are correct?
Answer choice:
A:
You must have a well-defined theory before you can formulate scientific laws.
B:
Scientific laws describe how things happen – but not why.
C:
Laws are derived from repeated observation.
D:
None of the above is correct.
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PART 2: Open Questions (20 marks + 3 bonus marks)
Note: Please give your answers on separate answer sheet(s) and state clearly to which question
number each answer refers. Answers that have no question number stated will not be marked.
Q-15 (3 marks): Assume, you hear the following sentence: „We decided to measure product size by
measuring the length of Java classes in terms of Netto Lines of Code (NLOC).“ What is the correct
mapping of the four underlined terms to: Measure Name (1), Entity (2), Attribute (3), and Unit (4)?
Note: You will only get a penalty, if you assign a wrong term to any of (1) to (4). For not assigning a
term to any of (1) to (4), you won’t get a penalty.
Q-16 (3 marks): What is the key difference between data and information? Illustrate the difference
with a small/simple example using the data ‘50’.
Q-17 (3 marks): Answer the following questions: Why it is important to have some conflicts between
group members during the storming phase of group evolution? What should happen, if the conflicts
within the group become too big?
Q-18 (3 marks): Name at least three of the four building blocks of which TQM (Total Quality
Management) is composed?
Q-19 (4 marks): Imagine a company that implements web-solutions. The company was started by
two students at UT and has in three years grown from two to forty employees. The founders realize
that they need to professionalize the management of their company and hire Petter who was a
middle level manager in the IT-department of a large Swedish bank. Petter sees immediately the
need to introduce more structure and proposes the introduction of routines which are the same as
those used in his last job. Answer the following questions:
 What could have been good reasons for hiring an experienced external person for the new
management position? (provide at least two reasons)
 What could be the risks of hiring a person like Petter? (describe at least two risks)
Q-20 (4 marks): Please explain how the following recommendations, which are typical for agile
projects, help reduce waste (using the definition of ’waste’ in lean software development):
 Agile recommendation 1: One person always works on one task at a time.
 Agile recommendation 2: The items in the product backlog are prioritized (and re-prioritised if
needed) and only refined as they move up the priority scale.
Q-21 (3 marks - bonus): Senior management proposes a structure for weekly status reports from
project members to project managers. The structure looks like this: 1) Name of developer & date; 2)
Completed work; 3) Ongoing work; 4) Future work; 5) Comments/risk points/problems; 6) Status
related to plan (plan vs. actual). A status report should not be longer than one page.
Answer the following questions:
 What are the advantages and disadvantages of having such formal communication?
 A status report should not be longer than one page. Which effect has this on
communication? (try to think of positive and negative effects)
 Should the project manager also make such status report for project members? (don’t simply
answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’ but provide an argument for your answer)
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PART 3: Constructive Tasks (10 marks + 2 bonus marks)
Note: Please provide solution on separate answer sheet(s) and state clearly to which task number
each solution relates. Solutions that have no task number stated will not be marked.
T-01 (10 marks): Read the following scenario, then – using exclusively the information provided in
the scenario text – define a measurement system for a derived measure called ’Average Iteration
Productivity’ (AIP) for company XY.
 First provide the mathematical formula (i.e., the model) for calculating AIP. Don’t forget to
mention the measurement units at the end of the formula.
 Then define precisely each of the base measures that you have used in the formula. For
each base measure, state the name (1), entity (2), attribute (3) and unit (4).
Scenario: Company XY uses the iterative development method RUP (Rational Unified Process).
Duration of iterations is measured in calendar-days (cd). At the end of each iteration, the
functionality of the software completed during the iteration is measured in function points (fp).
Hint: You will have to define three base measures.
T-02 (2 marks - bonus): Show by mathematical proof that calculating the sum of two numbers
defined on an ordinal scale is not meaningful.
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