CPSA-FL Exam Dumps - iSQI CPSA-F Questions and Answers

The most accurate statements about quality characteristics are:B. Increased flexibility improves robustness - Flexibility in design allows the system to handle and recover from errors and unexpected inputs more robustly.C. Simplicity increases comprehensibility - A simpler design is easier to understand, maintain, and less prone to errors, directly impacting the comprehensibility of the software.

The software architect is typically responsible for the following quality characteristics:A. The performance of the software - Ensuring that the software meets performance criteria and behaves efficiently under specified conditions is a primary responsibility of the software architect.C. The suitability of the software design for its purpose - Architects must ensure that the design effectively meets the intended functions and requirements, addressing the suitability of the software for its purpose.

These answers are derived from established software architecture practices and principles, focusing on the roles and responsibilities of software architects in ensuring quality and effective documentation.

A) TrueB) TrueC) FalseD) TrueE) TrueF) True

A) Top-down and bottom-up design may be employed in the same project.

• Top-down and bottom-up are two approaches to the design of software architecture. In top-down, the high-level design is created first, focusing on general functionalities and structure. In contrast, bottom-up starts with detailed designs focusing on a component or module level.

The Architecture Tradeoff Analysis Method (ATAM) helps evaluate architecture decisions with respect to quality attributes by producing several key artifacts:

• B: The concrete quality tree illustrates and organizes the quality attributes specific to the architecture being evaluated, showing how generic quality attributes are refined into measurable scenarios.
• C: Description of quality scenarios specifies and documents the scenarios under which the architecture's responses are tested against the desired quality attributes.
• G: List of the architectural risks identifies potential risks in the architecture that may threaten the system’s ability to meet its quality goals, aiding in proactive risk management.

When designing external interfaces, several considerations must be taken into account:A. Volatility of neighbouring systems - Changes in neighboring systems can affect the stability and compatibility of interfaces, requiring interfaces to be adaptable to changes.C. Protocols enforced by neighbouring systems - It's crucial to align with the protocols used by neighboring systems to ensure seamless communication and interoperability.D. Expected amount of parallel calls - This affects the scalability and performance requirements of the interface, as it must be designed to handle the expected load efficiently.

The interpretations of Conway’s law that are true and false are as follows:

• True:
• False:

Conway’s law suggests that the structure of systems designed by an organization will mimic the communication structures of that organization1. This means that the way teams are organized and communicate will influence the design of the software they are developing. Here’s an explanation of each interpretation:

• True Statements:
• False Statements:

Conway’s law is a valuable consideration in software engineering, reminding us that organizational decisions can have a significant impact on the design and functionality of the software.

References:

• Wikipedia article on Conway’s law1.
• ThinkingLabs article on Shades of Conway’s Law2.
• Dovetail article on What Is Conway’s Law

In the context of software architecture, certain elements serve as building blocks to structure and organize software systems effectively.

• A: An algorithm is a sequence of steps designed to perform a specific task and can be a critical part of system logic and functionality.
• B: A component is a modular part of a system that encapsulates its contents and whose deployment and versioning can be managed independently.
• D: A class in object-oriented programming encapsulates data for the object and operations that manipulate that data, serving as a blueprint within the architecture.
• H: A package helps organize classes and interfaces that are related functionally, promoting a cleaner and more manageable architecture structure.

The principles that apply to testing include:A. In general, exhaustive testing is not possible. - It is widely recognized in software testing that it is not feasible to test every possible input or state of a software application due to the vast number of variations and combinations, especially in complex systems.B. Where many errors exist, more errors are usually hidden. - This principle, often referred to as the pesticide paradox in software testing, suggests that discovering numerous bugs in a specific area of the software often indicates the presence of additional, less obvious bugs.

The term 'coupling' in software architecture refers to the degree of direct knowledge that one component has about another. This can be reflected in:A. A building block uses an interface of another building block. - This represents a form of coupling where components interact through well-defined interfaces, influencing the level of dependency between them.D. A building block uses internal data structures of another building block. - This indicates a higher degree of coupling, as it involves direct knowledge of another component’s internal workings, which is generally discouraged to maintain modularity and ease of maintenance.

These answers are based on fundamental software architecture and design principles widely recognized in the field.

The white-box view of a software building block provides an in-depth perspective on the internal structure and behavior of the building block.

• A: The dependencies of the internal building blocks of 'foo' are crucial for understanding how changes in one part affect others and for managing future modifications.
• C: The algorithms of the internal building blocks of 'foo' give insight into the logic and operations performed within the block, which is essential for performance analysis and optimization.
• D: The internal building blocks of 'foo' describe the finer-grained components or modules within 'foo', detailing their responsibilities and interactions, fundamental for detailed design and implementation.