Beginning Software Engineering

GLOSSARY

1NF  See first normal form.

2NF  See second normal form.

3NF  See third normal form.

80/20-rule  In the Dynamic Systems Development Method, the assumption that 80-percent of an application’s features will take 20-percent of the project’s total time to implement. (The 80/20-rule often applies to other situations, too. For example, 80-percent of the bugs are usually contained in 20-percent of the code.)

acceptance test  A test to determine whether the finished application meets the requirements. Normally, a user or other customer representative sits down the with application and runs through all the use cases you identified during the requirements gathering phase to make sure everything works as advertised.

activation  See execution specification.

activity diagram  In UML, a diagram that represents work flows for activities. They include several kinds of symbols connected with arrows to show the direction of the work flow.

adaptive development model  A development model that enables you to change the project’s goals if necessary during development.

administrator  Someone who manages the development team’s computers, network, and other tools. Also called a system administrator.

advisor user  Any user who brings an important viewpoint to the project.

agile development  A development model where you initially provide the fewest possible features at the lowest fidelity to still have a useful application. Over time, you add more features and improve existing features until ...