ITPEC FE Subject A October 2025 Question 38

Topic: System Development Technology

What is the expected value in dollars for the correction cost of an application program in the first year under the conditions shown below?

[Conditions]

(1)Program size: 2,000 k steps(2)Potential defective rate of program: 0.04 defects / k steps(3)Annual discovery rate of potential defects: 20% / year(4)Classification of discovered defects: –Major impact: 20% –Minor impact: 80%(5)Correction cost per defect Defects with major impact: 20,000 dollars Defects with minor impact: 5,000 dollars(6)In the first year, only defects with major impact are corrected

Explanation

64,000 dollars — count the defects found in the first year, keep only the major ones, then price them.

  • •Potential defects: 2,000 × 0.04 = 80
  • •Found in the first year: 80 × 0.20 = 16
  • •Major impact among them: 16 × 0.20 = 3.2
  • •Expected cost: 3.2 × 20,000 = 64,000 dollars

Condition (6) says only major defects are corrected in the first year, so the 12.8 minor defects cost nothing yet.

Answer (a)

Why not others:

  • •(b) 128,000 — also corrects the minor defects, 12.8 × 5,000 = 64,000, against condition (6).
  • •(c) 160,000 — no combination of the given rates leads to it; the only first-year cost is the 3.2 major defects.
  • •(d) 640,000 — ten times the correct value, a decimal slip such as 32 major defects instead of 3.2.

Key rule: Apply each rate in turn to the count it refers to (size, then discovery, then share), and read which defects are actually corrected in the period asked.

System Development Technology · AI-written, may contain errors

Practice this exam

This question comes from an official ITPEC past paper. ITPEC Practice is an independent study tool and is not affiliated with ITPEC. See the official FE past-paper collection or Report an issue.