ASQ communicates exam results for exams with updated or new Bodies of Knowledge pilot exams within five weeks. If you do not pass your CBT exam you will receive a summary of your performance via email within business days from your initial exam. For 2 years from your previous attempt you can apply at a significantly reduced "retake rate".
Results for Paper-based tests will be slightly delayed. The topics in this Body of Knowledge include additional detail in the form of subtext explanations and the cognitive level at which the questions will be written. This information will provide useful guidance for both the Examination Development Committee and the candidates preparing to take the exam.
The subtext is not intended to limit the subject matter or be all-inclusive of what might be covered in an exam. It is intended to clarify the type of content to be included in the exam. The descriptor in parentheses at the end of each entry refers to the highest cognitive level at which the topic will be tested. A more comprehensive description of cognitive levels is provided at the end of this page.
You will be required to present one valid, government-issued photo ID with a signature e. All of your personal belongings will be placed in your temporary Prometric locker during your time in the test center. You will be permitted to keep your ID and your locker key with you at all times. All computer-based exams feature a basic scientific calculator on-screen in the exam. Prometric Test Center Administrators can provide you with a hand-held basic calculator upon request.
Any silent, hand-held, battery-operated calculator with no programmable memory will be permitted. Calculators such as the Texas Instruments TI or similar are absolutely not allowed because they are programmable.
Prometric will provide you scratch paper and pencils. All ASQ exams are open book and all reference materials including all forms of notes must be bound and remain bound during the exam. Bound refers to material permanently bound by stitching or glue and materials fastened securely in its cover by fasteners, which penetrate all papers i.
Manually or hand-stapled documents that are not securely fastened in their covers are not allowed. Plan to arrive 30 minutes before the scheduled appointment to allow time for check-in procedures. If you are late in arriving, you will not be allowed to test and will forfeit your exam fee. Failure to appear for your exam appointment will result in a loss of all applications fees. Submit your application: Application review takes business days for online applications and for hardcopy applications.
ASQ Review: After ASQ completes the review process you will receive an approval notification via email or a "hold" message explaining that more information is needed for your application to be approved.
Testing Options a. Computer-Based Testing, CBT: business days after you receive your approval notification, you will receive an eligibility email containing instructions on how to schedule your exam with our testing provider Prometric. Instead you will receive a seating letter with your exam date, time, and location approximately 2 weeks before your exam date.
Schedule your exam with Prometric: Schedule your exam appointment in the testing window you chose at the time of application. The examination scheduling instructions in your eligibility letter will direct you to a section of Prometric's website, where you can select and schedule your examination date and location. Requirements Candidates must have worked in a full-time, paid role.
Education Candidates who have completed a degree from a college, university or technical school will have part of the eight-year experience requirement waived, as follows only one of these waivers may be claimed : Diploma from a technical or trade school — one year waived Associate degree — two year waived Bachelor's degree — four years waived Master's or doctorate — five years waived.
Prepare for the exam Review a list of references that provide the basis for the exam questions. Provide a foundation for curriculum develop- The distinction between KAs and related disci- ment and individual certification material. Software engineers should also know consensus on the core subset of knowledge char- material from the related disciplines, but the SWE- acterizing the software engineering discipline. BOK project will not attempt to specify that mater- To achieve these goals, we oriented the project ial.
It aims to serve pub- as those being coordinated by the Joint IEEE lic and private organizations in need of a consistent Computer Society and ACM Software Engineering view of software engineering for defining educa- Coordinating Committee, or the Working Group on tion and training requirements, classifying jobs, and Software Engineering Education.
It also As Figure 1 shows and as the following sec- addresses practicing software engineers and the of- tions explain , each KA description—which should ficials responsible for making public policy regard- be around 10 pages—contains several important ing licensing and professional guidelines.
In addi- components. A two- or three-level break- down will provide a reasonable way for readers to find topics of interest. The Guide will treat the se- lected topics in a manner compatible with major schools of thought and with breakdowns generally Topic Classification Ratings References to found in industry and in software engineering lit- descriptions by Vincenti's by Bloom's related erature and standards.
The breakdown of topics will taxonomy taxonomy disciplines not presume particular application domains, busi- ness uses, management philosophies, development Figure 1. The organization of a Knowledge methods, and so forth. After all, the be written in English and generally available. After Internet without charge.
Of course, a par- tinguish from advanced and research knowledge ticular reference might apply to more than one topic. The generally accepted knowledge applies To provide an alternative manner for viewing the to most projects most of the time, and widespread topics and connecting to other engineering disci- consensus validates its value and effectiveness. More precisely, generally ac- and approaches to problem solving.
Although this criterion is Guide will also rate each topic with a set of peda- specific to the US style of education and does not gogical categories commonly attributed to Benjamin necessarily apply to other countries, we deem it use- Bloom. The concept is that educational objectives ful. However, both definitions of generally accepted can be classified into six categories representing in- knowledge should be seen as complementary.
Although these each KA. They might be book chapters, refereed pa- KAs will be merely identified without additional de- pers, or any other well-recognized source of au- scription or references, they should aid curriculum thoritative information—but the reference should developers. KA remain the subject of comment, review, and The concepts of configuration management amendment.
Furthermore, some themes—such as apply to all items requiring control, though there measurement, tools, and standards—cut across the are differences in implementation between hard- KAs and are currently treated separately in each. The primary activities of versions of the Guide. Here, in alphabetical order, we software configuration management are used as describe the KAs as currently drafted.
Figure 2 maps the framework for organizing and describing the out the 10 KAs and the important topics incorpo- topics of this KA. These primary activities are the rated within them. It de- The breakdown of topics for this KA adopts two scribes how the system is decomposed and orga- complementary views of software construction. The nized into components, and it describes the interfaces first view comprises three major styles of software between these components.
Design also refines the construction interfaces: linguistic, mathematical, description of these components into a level of de- and visual see Figure 2b. For each style, topics are tail suitable for initiating their construction. Software architecture is the For example, the topics listed under anticipation next subarea and includes topics on structures and of diversity for linguistic software construction meth- viewpoints, architectural descriptions, patterns, and ods are information hiding, embedded documenta- object-oriented frameworks.
Design Software engineering management strategies and methods constitute the last subarea, The software engineering management KA con- and it contains four main topics: general strategies, sists of both the management process and mea- data-structure-centered design, function-oriented surement subareas see Figure 2e.
While these two design, and object-oriented design. It organizes the re- represents a maturing of the discipline. Development methods vary review and evaluation, and closure. The SWEBOK Guide will divide ics: measurement program goals, measurement se- this subarea into three nondisjointed main topics: lection, data collection, and model development.
Another issue included is the col- Software tools are the computer-based tools in- lection of measures, which involves both technical tended to assist the software engineering process. The fourth topic model devel- with applying the method manually. Like methods, opment is concerned with using both data and they are intended to make development more sys- knowledge to build models. The top-level partitioning of the software tools This KA covers the definition, implementation, subarea distinguishes between development and measurement, management, change, and improve- maintenance, supporting activities, and manage- ment of software processes.
The first subarea—basic ment tools. The remaining categories cover inte- concepts and definitions—establishes the KA themes grated tool sets also known as software engineer- and terminology see Figure 2f. The purpose and methods for defining software The emergence of software components as a vi- processes, as well as existing software process def- able approach to software development represents initions and automated support, are described in a maturing of the discipline to overcome the not- the process definition subarea.
The topics of this invented-here syndrome. The component integra- subarea are types of process definitions, life-cycle tion subarea is partitioned into topics dealing with models, life-cycle process models, notations for individual components, reference models that de- process definitions, process definition methods, and scribe how components can be combined, and the automation.
Measurement plays lems for software engineering, as addressed in the an important role in process evaluation; therefore, problems of software maintenance subarea. Two general paradigms, analytic lution and maintenance. The subarea on mainte- and benchmarking, distinguish between types of nance cost and maintenance cost estimation con- evaluations. The analytic paradigm relies on quan- cerns life-cycle costs as well as costs for individual titative evidence to determine where improvements evolution and maintenance tasks.
The maintenance are needed and whether an improvement initiative measurements subarea addresses the topics of qual- has been successful. Under this paradigm falls qual- ity and metrics. The final subarea, tools and tech- itative evaluation, root-cause analysis, process sim- niques for maintenance, aggregates many subtopics ulation, orthogonal defect classification, experi- that the KA description otherwise fails to address.
The benchmarking paradigm de- Software quality analysis pends on identifying an excellent organization in a Production of quality products is the key to cus- field and documenting its practices and tools. Software without the requisite Process assessment models and methods are the features and degree of quality is an indicator of two main topics listed under this paradigm.
The process implementation and change sub- However, even with the best software engineering area describes the paradigms, infrastructure, and processes, requirement specifications can miss cus- critical success factors necessary for successful tomer needs, code can fail to fulfill requirements, process implementation and change. The topics of and subtle errors can lie undetected until they cause this subarea are paradigms for process implemen- minor or major problems—even catastrophic fail- tation and change, infrastructure, guidelines for ures.
This KA therefore discusses the knowledge re- process implementation and change, and evaluat- lated to software quality assurance and software ing process implementation and change. The goal of software engineering is a quality Software evolution and maintenance product, but quality itself can mean different things. Software maintenance is defined by IEEE Standard Despite different terminology, there is some con- , IEEE Standard for Software Maintenance as sensus about the attributes that define software modifying a software product after delivery to correct quality and dependability over a range of products.
However, soft- Even with the best software engineering ware systems are rarely completed and processes, requirement specifications can constantly evolve over time. Therefore, miss customer needs.
These definitions provide the base knowledge from The maintenance concepts subarea defines main- which individual quality products are planned, built, tenance, its basic concepts, and how the concept of analyzed, measured, and improved.
The defining system evolution fits into software engineering see quality products subarea discusses these definitions Figure 2g. It also explains the duties that maintain- see Figure 2h. The maintenance activities and roles Software quality assurance is a process designed subarea addresses the formal types of maintenance to assure a quality product; it is a planned and sys- and common activities.
As with software develop- tematic pattern of all actions necessary to provide ment, the process is critical to the success and un- adequate confidence that the product conforms to derstanding of software evolution and maintenance.
Software verifica- The next subarea discusses standard maintenance tion and validation is a process that provides an processes. Organizing maintenance might differ from objective assessment of software products and development; the subarea on organizational aspects processes throughout the software life cycle; that is, discusses the differences.
The second breakdown con- cerns testing for specific conditions or properties. Software requirements analysis The next subarea describes the knowledge rele- The software requirements analysis KA is broken vant to several generally accepted test techniques.
0コメント