Professional standards questions and answers
Q1. Explain why 10 people working in a team designing a new network for a national company should produce documents that all look the same and follow a recognised standard.
A1. So they can all understand what each other is doing, in case one of them is off sick for a while, in case one of them leaves their job, in case they need to work with other companies, so future maintenance of a product can be carried out.
Q2. Explain why the technical documentation produced for a new computer game should form part of the technical documentation for that software product.
A2. All software has a fixed life. Technical documentation is needed so that future maintenance can be carried out.
Q3. Describe three reasons why a software application might have to be changed in the future.
A3. Change in the law, to make use of some new technology, because the customer wants some extra features, because a bug has been reported, because the product has been a victim of its own success and needs to be upgraded.
Q4. Describe three examples of standards that programmers might have to adhere to when writing code for a new application.
A4. Standard ways of laying out code, standard naming conventions, standardised procedures for documentation, standard ways of carrying out and documenting tests, standard way of documenting changes, standard version control methods to keep track of different versions during development, standard way of creating new functions and procedures and adding them to libraries, any other sensible example.
Q5. What problems might a company have if a key employee leaves the company suddenly and they have not been keeping records about what they have been doing?
A5. Other employees may not know what work has been completed and what hasn't. They may not be able to help customers if they don't know where they are up to, or many lose a lot of customer goodwill if they suddenly cannot help customers because they don't have the information they need. A company may have to repeat work a key employee has done, which costs money.
Q6. What is meant by a template?
A6. A template is a standard, part-completed document that can be used as a starting point for new documents. They not only save time but ensure that all documents that use the template are produced in the same way.
Q7. Why is it important for variables in a program to follow a naming convention?
A7. For small programs, it's probably not very critical, but when programs are thousands of lines of code long, it is important that everything is organised, including variable names. If you have a convention, it makes finding the actual variable you want much easier and reduces the risk of duplicating variables.
Q8. Why is it important to have a convention for naming the versions of documents when they are saved on a computer?
A8. When a document is produced, it may have many different drafts. These drafts may also be passed back and forth between different people for amendments. You can quickly lose track of which draft of which document you are working on if you don't have a naming convention that ideally includes the version number and date e.g. draft_v1_030514, draft_v2_040514, draft 3_v3_070514 and so on. By including the date, it is easier to revert back to an earlier version if you need to but you may also have more than one version in a day so you should have a version number as well. This doesn't just apply to documents. It is a very important part of naming software programs you are developing, as they will typically be worked on by more than one person and many different versions will be produced.
Q9. What is meant by software 'maintenance'?
A9. Software maintenance is when you have to modify a program because someone has discovered a bug, because of legal changes, new requirements and so on.
Q10. In companies, whose responsibility is it to ensure that procedures are actually being followed?
A10. Companies are typically organised so that everyone has a line manager. They are paid not just to do their job but to monitor the work of those they are responsible for. Part of that involves ensuring that they follow the company's rules and procedures.