IPA IP 2020 Question 51

Topic: Software Development Management Techniques

A question IPA Japan published in 令和2年度 10月 ITパスポート試験公開問題問51, translated into English. ITPEC is based on the same exams.

Which of the following is the most appropriate work that is performed in reverse engineering?

a)In order to respond flexibly to change requests and other such requests for software under development, development in short periods is repeated.b)A prototype of the software is created, and development is performed while the evaluation by users is fed back.c)In software development, the processes from upstream to downstream are performed in order.d)By analyzing a program, the specifications of the software are investigated and the design information is extracted.

Explanation

Analyzing a program to extract its design information — reverse engineering works backwards from a finished product to the specifications and design behind it.

Ordinary (forward) development goes from requirements to design to a program. Reverse engineering runs the other way: it starts from an existing program, often one whose documents are missing or out of date, analyzes its code and behavior, and recovers its specifications and design information. The result is used for maintenance, for migrating or rebuilding the system, or for understanding how a product works.

Answer (d)

Why not others:

•(a) — repeating short development cycles to absorb change requests is agile development
•(b) — building a trial version and feeding users' evaluation back into development is prototyping
•(c) — carrying out the processes in order from upstream to downstream is the waterfall model

Key rule: From an existing program back to its specifications and design is reverse engineering; agile, prototyping and waterfall are ways of developing forwards.

Software Development Management Techniques · AI-written, may contain errors

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This question comes from the past questions IPA Japan publishes, translated into English by ITPEC Practice. ITPEC Practice is an independent study tool and is not affiliated with IPA or ITPEC. See the original paper (PDF) or Report an issue.