Networking Acronyms & Abbreviations

A
AHS- Abstract Handle Specification

ASN.1- Abstract Syntax Notation One

AUP- Acceptable Use Policy

ACL- Access Control List

ACK- acknowledgment

AMP- Active Monitor Present

ADPCM- Adaptive Pulse Code Modulation

ARP- Address Resolution Protocol

ADMD- Administration Management Domain

AD- Administrative Domain

ACF- Advanced Communications Facility

APPC- Advanced Program-to-Program Communication

ARPANET- Advanced Research Projects Agency Network

ANSI- American National Standards Institute

ASCII- American Standard Code for Information Interchange

AM- Amplitude Modulation

AARP- AppleTalk Address Resolution Protocol

ADSP- AppleTalk Data Stream Protocol

AEP- AppleTalk Echo Protocol

AFI- AppleTalk Filing Interface

AFP- AppleTalk Filing Protocol

ARAP- AppleTalk Remote Access Protocol

ASP- AppleTalk Session Protocol

ATP- AppleTalk Transaction Protocol

AES- Application Environment Specification

API- Application Program Interface

AOW- Asia and Oceania Workshop

ACSE- Association Control Service Element

ABM- Asynchronous Balanced Mode

ATM- Asynchronous Transfer Mode

AFI- Authority and Format Identifier

ARQ- Automatic Repeat Request

ARS- Automatic Route Selection

AS- Autonomous System

AUI- Auxiliary Unit Interface

B

BER- Basic Encoding Rules

B-ISDN- Basic-rate ISDN

BTAM- Basic Telecommunications Access Method

BNC- Bayonet Nut Connector

BIND- Berkeley Internet Name Domain

BSD- Berkeley Software Distribution

BCD- Binary Coded Decimal

BSC- Binary Synchronous Communications

BOF- Birds Of a Feather

BGP- Border Gateway Protocol

BBS- Bulletin Board System

C

CWIS- Campus Wide Information System

CD- Carrier Detect

CSMA/CA- Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance

CSMA/CD- Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Detection

CNode- Catalog Node

CRT- Cathode Ray Tube

CO- Central Office

CHAP- Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol

CSU- Channel Service Unit

CSDC- Circuit-Switched Digital Capability

CIDR- Classless Inter-Domain Routing

CTS- Clear To Send

CNIDR- Clearinghouse for Networked Information Discovery and Retrieval

CMOT- CMIP Over TCP

CNI- Coalition for Networked Information

coax- coaxial cable

CTERM- Command Terminal Protocol

CIX- Commercial Information Exchange

COTS- Commercial Off-The-Shelf

CCR- Commitment, Concurrency and Recovery

CCIS- Common Channel Interoffice Signaling

CMIP- Common Management Information Protocol

CMIS- Common Management Information Services

CATV- Community Antenna Television

CERT- Computer Emergency Response Team

CIT- Computer Integrated Telephony

CONS- Connection Oriented Network Service

CLNP- Connectionless Network Protocol

CBX- Computerized Branch Exchange

CLTP- Connectionless Transport Protocol

CAM- Content Addressable Memory

CVSD- Continuous Variable-Slope Delta modulation

COSINE- Cooperation for Open Systems Interconnection Networking in Europe

UTC- Coordinated Universal Time

CCIRN- Coordinating Committee for Intercontinental Research Networks

CNRI- Corporation for National Research Initiatives

COS- Corporation for Open Systems

CREN- Corporation for Research and Educational Networking

CICS- Customer Information Control System

CPE- Customer Premises Equipment

CRC- Cyclic Redundancy Check

D

DCE- Data Circuit-terminating Equipment

DEK- Data Encryption Key

DES- Data Encryption Standard

DNIC- Data Network Identification Code

DSU- Data Service Unit

DSR- Data Set Ready

DTE- Data Terminal Equipment

DTR- Data Terminal Ready

DDP- Datagram Delivery Protocol

DDS- Dataphone Digital Service

DARPA- Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

DDN- Defense Data Network

DISA- Defense Information Systems Agency

DACS- Digital Access and Cross-connect System

DCM- Digital Circuit Multiplication

DELNI- Digital Local Network Interconnect

DNA- Digital Network Architecture

DTS- Digital Termination Systems

DMA- Direct Memory Access

DAP- Directory Access Protocol

DSA- Directory System Agent

DUA- Directory User Agent

DOS- Disk Operating System

DV algorithm- Distance-Vector algorithm

DCE- Distributed Computing Environment

DDP- Distributed Data Processing

DIA/DCA- Document Interchange Architecture/Document Content Architecture

DNS- Domain Name System

DIS- Draft International Standard

DTMF- Dual Tone Multi-Frequency

DAR- Dynamic Adaptive Routing

DHCP- Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol

DAS- Dynamically Assigned Socket

E

EMI- Electromagnetic Interference

EDI- Electronic Data Interchange

EFF- Electronic Frontier Foundation

EIA- Electronic Industries Association

ESS- Electronic Switching System

EOA- End Of Address

EOB- End Of Block

EOM- End Of Message

ETX- End of Text

EOT- End Of Transmission

ES- End System

ES-IS- End System to Intermediate System

EID- Endpoint Identifier

EMA- Enterprise Management Architecture

ELAP- EtherTalk Link Access Protocol

EARN- European Academic and Research Network

ECMA- European Computer Manufacturers Association

EWOS- European Workshop for Open Systems

XO transaction- Exactly-Once transaction

XID- Exchange Identification

EBCDIC- Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code

ESF- Extended Superframe Format

EGP- Exterior Gateway Protocol

XDR- External Data Representation

EHF- Extremely High Frequency

ELF- Extremely Low Frequency

F

FCC- Federal Communications Commission

FIX- Federal Information Exchange

FIPS- Federal Information Processing Standards

FNC- Federal Networking Council

FDDI- Fiber Distributed Data Interface

FTAM- File Transfer, Access, and Management

FTP- File Transfer Protocol

FIFO- First In First Out

FEC- Forward Error Correction

FLEA- Four Letter Extended Acronym

FCS- Frame Check Sequence

FDM- Frequency Division Multiplexing

FM- Frequency Modulation

FDX- Full Duplex

FQDN- Fully Qualified Domain Name

G

GAP- Gateway Access Protocol

GOSIP- Government OSI Profile

GIF- Graphical Interchange Format

GMT- Greenwich Mean Time

GUS- Guide to the Use of Standards

H

HDX- Half Duplex

hex- hexadecimal

HFS- Hierarchical File System

HF- High Frequency

HDLC- High-level Data Link Control

HPCC- High Performance Computing and Communications

HIPPI- High Performance Parallel Interface

HASP- Houston Automatic Spooling Program

I

IEEE- Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers

IC- Integrated Circuit

ISDN- Integrated Services Digital Network

IVDT- Integrated Voice/Data Terminal

IDRP- Inter-Domain Routing Protocol

IDPR- Inter-Domain Policy Routing

IINREN- Interagency Interim National Research and Education Network

IEC- Interexchange Carrier

IDU- Interface Data Unit

IMP- Interface Message Processor

IGP- Interior Gateway Protocol

IS- Intermediate System

IS-IS- Intermediate System to Intermediate System

IONL- Internal Organization of the Network Layer

ISO- International Organization for Standardization

IS- International Standard

ITU- International Telecommunications Union

ITU-TSS- International Telecommunications Union--- Telecommunications Standards Sector

ITB- International Time Bureau

IAB- Internet Architecture Board

IANA- Internet Assigned Numbers Authority

ICMP - Internet Control Message Protocol

IESG- Internet Engineering Steering Group

IETF- Internet Engineering Task Force

IEN- Internet Experiment Note

IGRP- Internet Gateway Routing Protocol

IGMP- Internet Group Multicast Protocol

IMAP- Internet Message Access Protocol

IMR- Internet Monthly Report

IP- Internet Protocol

IPCP- Internet Protocol Control Protocol

IR- Internet Registry

IRC- Internet Relay Chat

IRSG- Internet Research Steering Group

IRTF- Internet Research Task Force

ISOC- Internet Society

IPX- Internetwork Packet Exchange

INTAP- Interoperability Technology Association for Information Processing

ISODE- ISO Development Environment

Testing Terminology

Acceptance Testing: Formal testing conducted to enable a user, customer, or other authorized entity to determine whether to accept a system or component. [IEEE]

Ad Hoc Testing: Testing carried out using no recognized test case design technique.

Alpha Testing: Simulated or actual operational testing at an in-house site not otherwise involved with the software developers.

API - Application Programming Interface: A set of documented programming routines, provided by the manufacturer of an application or a device designed to allow third-party access to functions or capabilities of the application or device. Used to facilitate the development of value-added features by parties other than the manufacturer.

Base Station: A land station in the land mobile service. For example, in cellular and PCS uses, each cell has its own base station; each base station is interconnected with other base stations and with the public switched network (PSTN).

Behavior: The combination of input values and preconditions and the required response for a function of a system. The full specification of a function would normally comprise one or more behaviors.

Beta Testing: Operational testing at a site not otherwise involved with the software developers.

Big-bang Testing: Integration testing where no incremental testing takes place prior to all the system's components being combined to form the system.

Black Box Testing: See "Functional Testing".

Bottom-up Testing: An approach to integration testing where the lowest level components are tested first, then used to facilitate the testing of higher level components. The process is repeated until the component at the top of the hierarchy is tested.

Boundary Value: An input value or output value which is on the boundary between equivalence classes, or an incremental distance either side of the boundary.

Boundary Value Analysis[BVA]: A test case design technique for a component in which test cases are designed which include representatives of boundary values.

Boundary Value Coverage: The percentage of boundary values of the component's equivalence classes which have been exercised by a test case suite.

Boundary Value Testing: A test case selection technique in which test data is chosen to lie among "boundaries" or extremes of input domain (or output range) classes, data structures, procedure parameters, etc. Boundary value test cases often include the minimum and maximum in-range values and the out-of-range values just beyond these values.

Branch: A conditional transfer of control from any statement to any other statement in a component, or an unconditional transfer of control from any statement to any other statement in the component except the next statement, or when a component has more than one entry point, a transfer of control to an entry point of the component.

Branch Condition: See decision condition.

Branch Condition Combination Coverage: The percentage of combinations of all branch condition outcomes in every decision that have been exercised by a test case suite.

Branch Condition Combination Testing: A test case design technique in which test cases are designed to execute combinations of branch condition outcomes.

Branch Condition Coverage: The percentage of branch condition outcomes in every decision that have been exercised by a test case suite.

Branch Condition Testing: A test case design technique in which test cases are designed to execute branch condition outcomes.

Branch Coverage: The percentage of branches that have been exercised by a test case suite.

Branch Outcome: See decision outcome.

Branch Point: See decision.

Branch Testing: A test case design technique for a component in which test cases are designed to execute branch outcomes.

Broadband: Broadband is a descriptive term for evolving digital technologies offering consumers a single switched facility offering integrated access to voice, high-speed data services, video-demand services, and interactive information delivery services. (Example: Cable TV system employs analog broadband transmission)

Bug: See fault.

Bug Seeding: See error seeding.

Capture/Playback Tool: A test tool that records test input as it is sent to the software under test. The input cases stored can then be used to reproduce the test at a later time.

Capture/Replay Tool: See capture/playback tool.

Certification: The process of confirming that a system or component complies with its specified requirements and is acceptable for operational use.

CDMA - Code Division Multiple Access: CDMA uses a method of spreading spectrum transmissions for digital wireless personal communications networks that allows a large number of users simultaneously to access a single radio frequency without interference.

CDMA2000: The name for the 3G evolution of cdmaOne (IS-95-based CDMA). A W-CDMA that is backwards compatible with cdmaOne systems.

Client/Server: A computer network configuration in which the "client" is a desktop computing device or program "served" by another networked computing device. Computers are integrated over the network by an application, which provides a single system image. The client can request information or applications from the server and the server provides the information or application.

Code Coverage: An analysis method that determines which parts of the software have been executed (covered) by the test case suite and which parts have not been executed and therefore may require additional attention.

Code-based Testing: Designing tests based on objectives derived from the implementation (e.g., tests that execute specific control flow paths or use specific data items).

Component: A minimal software item for which a separate specification is available.

Component Testing: The testing of individual software components

Condition: An expression containing no Boolean operators. For example, the expression "IF A" is a condition as it is a Boolean expression without Boolean operators which evaluates to either True or False.

Condition Outcome: The evaluation of a condition to TRUE or FALSE.

Control Flow: An abstract representation of all possible sequences of events in a program's execution.

Control Flow Graph: The diagrammatic representation of the possible alternative control flow paths through a component.

Control Flow Path: See path.

Correctness: The degree to which software conforms to its specification.

Coverage: The degree, expressed as a percentage, to which a specified coverage item has been exercised by a test case suite.

Data Definition: An executable statement where a variable is assigned a value.

Data Definition-use Coverage: The percentage of data definition-use pairs in a component that are exercised by a test case suite.

Data Definition-use Pair: A data definition and data use, where the data use uses the value defined in the data definition.

Data Definition-use Testing: A test case design technique for a component in which test cases are designed to execute data definition-use pairs.

Data Flow Coverage: Test coverage measure based on variable usage within the code. Examples are data definition-use coverage, data definition P-use coverage, data definition C-use coverage, etc.

Data Flow Testing: Testing in which test cases are designed based on variable usage within the code.

Data Use: An executable statement where the value of a variable is accessed.

Deactivated Code: Code which by design is either (a) not intended to be executed (for example, source code that is part of a previously developed, reusable software component) or (b) is only executed in certain configurations of the target computer environment (for example, machine code that is enabled by a hardware pin selection). The software build process (linker) may exclude such code from being bound in to the executable.

Dead Code: Executable machine code (not source code, although the machine code may have resulted directly from the source code) which cannot, nor is intended to, be used in any operational configuration of the target computer environment and is not traceable to a system or software requirement. Dead code may be generated by compilers or linkers.

Debugging: The act of correcting errors during the development process.

Decision: An expression comprising conditions and zero or more Boolean operators that is used in a control construct (e.g. if...then...else; case statement) that determines the flow of execution of the software program. A decision without a Boolean operator reduces to a condition. For example, the expression "IF (A>B) or (B5 LOOP".

Decision Coverage: Every point of entry and exit within the software is invoked at least once, and every decision in the software has taken all possible outcomes at least once. Source code decision coverage, by definition, includes source level statement coverage, while instruction decision coverage includes machine code decision coverage.

Decision/Condition Coverage: Every point of entry and exit within the software is invoked at least once, every condition in a decision in the software has taken all possible outcomes at least once, and every decision has taken all possible outcomes at least once.

Decision Outcome: The result of a decision (which therefore determines the control flow alternative taken).

Designated Engineering Representative (DER): A formal nomenclature bestowed by the Federal Aviation Administration on an engineer who is authorized to act on the FAA's behalf in evaluating aircraft products, engineering, and issues.

Design-based Testing: Designing tests based on objectives derived from the architectural or detail design of the software (e.g., tests that execute specific invocation paths or probe the worst case behavior of algorithms).

Desk Checking: The testing of software by the manual simulation of its execution.

Domain: The set from which values are selected.

Domain Testing: See equivalence partition testing.

Downlink: The part of a satellite system that includes the satellite itself, the receiving earth station and the signal transmitted from the satellite to the earth.

DPE - Distributed Processing Environment: A software construct that facilitates an application's distribution across a network of Processing Elements. The Processing Elements may be aggregated together into functional Network Elements in which the Network Elements may represent a physical package, management domain, an application domain, or some combination of these. The primary objective of the Distributed Processing Environment is to insulate the application program from the complexities of building a distributed application. The insulation is provided through a set of services that allow communication and service usage in both a locations transparent and access transparent fashion. DPE provides infrastructure functions and services within a structure that supports many requirements such as availability, scalability, real-time responsiveness, and security.

Dynamic Analysis: The process of evaluating a system or component based upon its behaviour during execution. [IEEE]

Earth Station: Equipment on earth that can transmit or receive satellite communications. In general usage, this term refers to receive-only stations.

Emulator: A device, computer program, or system that accepts the same inputs and produces the same outputs as a given system. [IEEE,do178b]

Entry Point: The first executable statement within a component.

Equivalence Class: An input domain ("class") for which each input yields the same ("equivalent") execution path regardless of which input from the class is chosen.

Equivalence Partition: See equivalence class.

Equivalence Partition Coverage: The percentage of equivalence classes generated for the component, which have been exercised by a test case suite.

Equivalence Partition Testing: A test case design technique for a component in which test cases are designed to execute representatives from equivalence classes.

Error: A human action that produces an incorrect result. [IEEE]

Error Guessing: A test case design technique where the experience of the tester is used to postulate what faults might occur, and to design tests specifically to expose them.

Error Seeding: The process of intentionally adding known faults to those already in a computer program for the purpose of monitoring the rate of detection and removal, and estimating the number of faults remaining in the program. [IEEE]

Executable Statement: A statement which, when compiled, is translated into object code, which will be executed procedurally when the program is running and may perform an action on program data.

Exercised: A program element is exercised by a test case when the input value causes the execution of that element, such as a statement, branch, or other structural element.

Exhaustive Testing: A test case design technique in which the test case suite comprises all combinations of input values and preconditions for component variables.

Exit Point: The last executable statement within a component.

Expected Outcome: See predicted outcome.

Failure: Deviation of the software from its expected delivery or service. [Fenton]

Fault: A manifestation of an error in software. A fault, if encountered may cause a failure. [do178b]

Feasible Path: A path for which there exists a set of input values and execution conditions which causes it to be executed.

Firewall: A combination of hardware and software which limits the exposure of a computer or a group of computers to attack from outside. The most common use of a firewall is on a local area network (LAN) connected to the Internet.

Footprint: The area in which a specific transmission can be received. Some footprints cover as much as one-third of the earth, such as satellite or cell systems.

Functional Specification: The document that describes in detail the characteristics of the product with regard to its intended capability. [BS 4778, Part2]

Functional Test Case Design: Test case selection that is based on an analysis of the specification of the component without reference to its internal workings.

Functional Testing: Verification of an item by applying test data derived from specified functional requirements without consideration of the underlying product architecture or composition.

2G - Second Generation Wireless System: A term used to describe digital cellular and Personal Communications Service (PCS) technologies, as well as the systems using such technologies. 2G systems include GSM, PCS1900, IS54/IS-136 and IS-136-based PCS, IS-95 and IS-95-based PCS.

2.5G: A term used to describe extensions to 2G systems to provide low bandwidth data transport capabilities and Internet Access.

3G - Third Generation Wireless System: A term used to describe the next major evolution in the technologies for digital cellular and PCS after 2G. 3G systems will support wireless Internet access at data rates exceeding 144kpbs in a vehicular environment, exceeding 384 kbps in an outdoor/indoor pedestrian environment, and exceeding 2 Mbps in a fixed, indoor environment.

Gateway: Gateways provide a single source through which users can locate and gain access to a wide variety of computer services. Gateways typically offer a directory of services available through them, and provide billing for these services.

GSM - Global System for Mobile Communications: The standard digital cellular phone service found in Europe, Japan, Australia, and elsewhere. GSM is a set of ETSI standards specifying the infrastructure for a digital cellular service.

iDEN - Integrated Dispatch Enhanced Network: A wireless technology developed by Motorola, iDEN operates in the 800 MHz, 900MHz, and 1.5 GHz radio bands. Through a single proprietary handset, iDEN supports voice in the form of both dispatch radio and PSTN interconnection, numeric paging, SMS for text, data and fax transmission.

Incremental Testing: Integration testing where system components are integrated into the system one at a time until the entire system is integrated.

Independence: Separation of responsibilities which ensures the accomplishment of objective evaluation. After [do178b].

Infeasible Path: A path which cannot be exercised by any set of possible input values.

Input: A variable (whether stored within a component or outside it) that is read by the component.

Input Domain: The set of all possible inputs.

Input Value: An instance of an input.

Inspection: A group review quality improvement process for written material. It consists of two aspects; product (document itself) improvement and process improvement (of both document production and inspection). After [Graham]

Installation Testing: Testing concerned with the installation procedures for the system.

Instruction Coverage: Every machine code instruction in the software has been executed at least once. Executing a machine instruction means that the instruction was processed.

Instrumentation: The insertion of additional code or breakpoints into software in order to collect runtime information about program execution which would otherwise not be obtainable.

Instrumenter: A software tool used to carry out instrumentation.

Integration: The process of combining components into larger assemblies.

Integration Testing: Testing performed to expose faults in the interfaces and in the interaction between integrated components.

Interface Testing: Integration testing where the interfaces between system components are tested.

ISDN - Integrated Services Digital Network: Switched network providing end-to-end digital connection for simultaneous transmission of voice and/or data over multiple multiplexed communication channels and employing transmission that conforms to internationally defined standards. ISDN is considered to be the basis for a "universal network" that can support almost any type of communications device or devices.

Isolation Testing: Component testing of individual components in isolation from surrounding components, with surrounding components being simulated by stubs.

Modified Condition/Decision Testing: A test case design technique in which test cases are designed to execute branch condition outcomes that independently affect a decision outcome.

Modified Decision/Condition Coverage: Every point of entry and exit within the software is invoked at least once, every condition in a decision in the software has taken all possible outcomes at least once, every decision has taken all possible outcomes at least once, and every condition in a decision is shown to independently affect that decision's outcome. A condition is shown to independently affect a decision's outcome by varying that condition while holding fixed all other possible conditions, and the decision's outcome changes as a result of the conditional change.

Optimization: The result of one or more compilation options which yields object code specially altered to provide an improvement in execution speed or reduced image size. Optimized object code contains different or re-ordered machine instructions and data compared to unoptimized code, even though each was compiled from the same source code.

Output: A variable (whether stored within a component or outside it) that is written to by the component.

Output Domain: The set of all possible outputs.

Output Value: An instance of an output

Path: A sequence of executable statements of a component, from an entry point to an exit point.

Path Coverage: The percentage of paths in a component exercised by a test case suite.

Path Sensitizing: Choosing a set of input values to force the execution of a component to take a given path.

Path Testing: A test case design technique in which test cases are designed to execute paths of a component.

PCS - Personal Communication Services: A term coined by the FCC, it describes a two-way, voice and data, wireless telecommunications system. PCS encompasses cordless phones, cellular mobile phone, paging systems, personal communications networks, wireless office phone systems and any other wireless telecommunications systems that allow people to place and receive voice/data calls while away from home and office.

Peer Review: A formal review of an item by a group of peers of the item's developer.

Performance Testing: Testing conducted to evaluate the compliance of a system or component with specified performance requirements. [IEEE]

Portability Testing: Testing aimed at demonstrating the software can be ported to specified hardware or software platforms.

Precondition: Environmental and state conditions, which must be fulfilled before the component can be executed with a particular input value.

Progressive Testing: Testing of new features after regression testing of previous features. [Beizer]

Regression Testing: Re-execution of tests which have previously been executed correctly, in order to verify a subsequent revision of that same product.

Requirements-based Testing: Designing tests based on objectives derived from requirements for the software component (e.g., tests that exercise specific functions or probe the non-functional constraints such as performance or security). See functional test case design.

Review: A process or meeting during which a work product, or set of work products, is presented to project personnel, managers, users or other interested parties for comment or approval. [ieee]

Simulation: The representation of selected behavioural characteristics of one physical or abstract system by another system. [ISO 2382/1].

Simulator: A device, computer program or system used during software verification, which behaves or operates like a given system when provided with a set of controlled inputs. [IEEE,do178b]

Software element: A software component which has quantifiable characteristics regarding its execution. Source code (assignment statements, decision statements, etc), and machine instructions are examples of elements. Structural coverage requirements typically embody one or more of these elements.

Software Structural Coverage: The degree to which execution of the software exercises one or more elements within that software. Since the term "coverage" refers to one or more types of elements, the potential for ambiguity implies that the use of the term "coverage" be preceded by the element type which is being covered by the structural test. The different types of coverage are defined in the remaining coverage definitions.

Software Structural Test/Source Code Coverage Matrix: A matrix which provides the correlation between all modules and all tests for software structural coverage purposes, thereby defining which tests provide structural coverage of which modules.

Source Statement: See statement.

Specification: A description of a component's function in terms of its output values for specified input values under specified preconditions.

SS7 - Signaling System 7: An architecture for performing out-of-band signaling in support of the call-establishment, billing, routing, and information-exchange functions of the public switched telephone network (PSTN). It identifies functions to be performed by a signaling-system network and a protocol to enable their performance.

State Transition: A transition between two allowable states of a system or component.

State Transition Testing: A test case design technique in which test cases are designed to execute state transitions.

Statement: An entity in a programming language which is typically the smallest indivisible unit of execution.

Statement Coverage: Every statement in the software has been executed at least once. Executing a statement means that the statement was encountered and evaluated during testing.

Statement Testing: A test case design technique for a component in which test cases are designed to execute statements.

Static Analysis: Analysis of a program carried out without executing the program.

Static Analyzer: A tool that carries out static analysis.

Static Testing: Testing of an object without execution on a computer.

Statistical Testing: A test case design technique in which a model is used of the statistical distribution of the input to construct representative test cases.

Stress Testing: Testing conducted to evaluate a system or component at or beyond the limits of its specified requirements. [IEEE]

Structural Coverage: Coverage measures based on the internal structure of the component.

Structural Coverage Deviations: An acceptable rationale associated with an unexecuted element which is not intended to be executed in any deliverable configuration, and for which analysis shows that the element cannot be inadvertently executed.

Structural Test Case Design: Test case selection that is based on an analysis of the internal structure of the component.

Structural Testing: See structural test case design.

Structured Basis Testing: A test case design technique in which test cases are derived from the code logic to achieve 100% branch coverage.

Structured Walk-through: See walkthrough.

Stub: Special code segments, or a subset of the final intended code which will simulate the interface of that code to other entities. Used to prototype, simulate, or test in advance of component completion.

Subpath: A sequence of executable statements within a component.

System Testing: The process of testing an integrated system to verify that it meets specified requirements. [Hetzel]

TDMA - Time Division Multiple Access: TDMA is a method of digital transmission for wireless telecommunications systems that allows a large number of users simultaneously to access a single radio frequency without interference. TDMA splices up time slots to provide users the individual portions of the allocated bandwidth.

Telephony: The word used to describe the science of transmitting voice over a telecommunications network.

Test Automation: The use of software to control the execution of tests, the comparison of actual outcomes to predicted outcomes, the setting up of test preconditions, and other test control and test reporting functions.

Test Case: A set of inputs, execution preconditions, and expected outcomes developed for a particular objective, such as to exercise a particular program path or to verify compliance with a specific requirement. After [IEEE,do178b]

Test Case Design Technique: A method used to derive or select test cases.

Test Case Suite: A collection of one or more test cases for the software under test.

Test Comparator: A test tool that compares the actual outputs produced by the software under test with the expected outputs for that test case.

Test Completion Criterion: A criterion for determining when planned testing is complete, defined in terms of a test measurement technique.

Test Coverage: See coverage.

Test Driver: A program which sets up an environment and calls a module for test.

Test Environment: A description of the hardware and software environment in which the tests will be run, and any other software with which the software under test interacts when under test including stubs and test drivers.

Test Execution: The processing of a test case suite by the software under test, producing an outcome.

Test Execution Technique: The method used to perform the actual test execution, e.g. manual, capture/playback tool, etc.

Test Generator: A program that generates test cases in accordance to a specified strategy or heuristic. After [Beizer].

Test Harness: See Test Driver.

Test Measurement Technique: A method used to measure test coverage items.

Test Outcome: See outcome.

Test Plan: A record of the test planning process detailing the degree of tester indedendence, the test environment, the test case design techniques and test measurement techniques to be used, and the rationale for their choice.

Test Procedure: A document providing detailed instructions for the execution of one or more test cases.

Test Records: For each test, an unambiguous record of the identities and versions of the component under test, the test specification, and actual outcome.

Test Script: Commonly used to refer to the automated test procedure used with a test harness.

Testing: The process of exercising software to verify that it satisfies specified requirements and to detect errors. After [do178b]

Thread Testing: A variation of top-down testing where the progressive integration of components follows the implementation of subsets of the requirements, as opposed to the integration of components by successively lower levels.

Top-down Testing: An approach to integration testing where the component at the top of the component hierarchy is tested first, with lower level components being simulated by stubs. Tested components are then used to test lower level components. The process is repeated until the lowest level components have been tested.

Transponder: A device in a communications satellite that receives signals from the earth, translates and amplifies them on another frequency, and retransmits them.

Unit Testing: See component testing.

Uplink: The signal that carries information from an earth station source up to a satellite.

Usability Testing: Testing the ease with which users can learn and use a product.

Validation: The determination of correctness of an item based upon requirements, and the sanctity of those requirements.

Verification: The demonstration of consistency, completeness, and correctness of an item.

Walk-Through: A manual analysis technique in which the item's developer describes the item's structure and logic to a group of peers.

White Box Testing: Verification of an item by applying test data derived from analysis of the item's underlying product architecture and composition.

Computer Terminology

Regular expressions are patterns of characters that match, or fail to match, sequences of characters in text. Regular expressions, at the most basic level, allow computer users and developers to find desired pieces of text and, often, to replace those pieces of text with something that is preferred.

ASCII The American Standard Code for Information Interchange defines the code assignments for text in nearly all computers today. It was first defined in 1967. ASCII defines code positions 0-127.

Adaptive software development A software development process created by Jim Highsmith and Sam Bayer. Continuous adaptation of the iteration software delivery process is done using speculate, collaborate, and learn phases.

Agile An iterative and incremental approach to developing software that adheres to the Agile Manifesto and its associated principles. Ideally this is done using small, dedicated, co-located, self-organizing teams who work in close collaboration with a business customer. Agile is value-driven both in the focus on delivering the most important features first and in the ways the teams choose to work together to develop the software.

Agile manifesto A statement of principles and values that define agile software development.

Algorithm as a tool for solving a well-specified computational problem. The statement of the problem specifies in general terms the desired input/output relationship. The algorithm describes a specific computational procedure for achieving that input/output relationship.

ATAPI (ATA Packet Interface) ATA or AT Attachment was the successor to the ST506 and ESDI hard disk interfaces for small hard drives. This was extended in the early 1990’s to allow CD-ROM drives to be connected to the same parallel data bus as hard drives thus eliminating the requirement for a separate interface card.

BSD Berkley Software Distribution. This is one of the original contributors to the UNIX operating system.

BIOS The software in a Windows computer which controls the startup.

BMP The most basic, uncompressed bitmap representation used by Microsoft Windows.

Checksum errors If data structures in a UDF file system are not constructed properly or are corrupted it is likely that the checksum will be incorrect. This is detected and reported on in the Analysis report.

Cluster A group of sectors allocated to a file together to reduce fragmentation.

Cryptography The branch of cryptology dealing with the design of algorithms for encryption and decryption, intended to ensure the secrecy and/or authenticity of messages.

Decryption The translation of encrypted text or data (called ciphertext) into original text or data (called plaintext). Also called deciphering.

Digital signature An authentication mechanism that enables the creator of a message to attach a code that acts as a signature. The signature is formed by taking the hash of the message and encrypting the message with the creator's private key. The signature guarantees the source and integrity of the message.

DMA Direct Memory Access, a technique which allows devices to directly write to the computer’s memory without requiring the processor to be involved. This significantly speeds up data transfer to and from CD and DVD devices.

DVD Originally,“DVD” was an acronym for Digital Video Disc and then later Digital Versatile Disc. Today it is generally agreed that DVD is not an acronym for anything.

ECMA Ecma International is an industry association founded in 1961 and dedicated to the standardization of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and Consumer Electronics(CE). They can be found at www.ecma-international.org

Encryption The conversion of plaintext or data into unintelligible form by means of a reversible translation, based on a translation table or algorithm. Also called enciphering.

Extreme programming (also referred to as eXtreme Programming and abbreviated as XP) A software engineering methodology that focuses on a set of specific engineering practices that lead to a higher quality of software and the ability to be more responsive to the customer's needs.

FTP Acronym for File Transfer Protocol, a common technique for transferring files over the Internet.

FAT Generically, the format of the original file system used on the IBM PC.

Firewall A dedicated computer that interfaces with computers outside a network and has special security precautions built into it in order to protect sensitive files on computers within the network. It is used to service outside network, especially Internet, connections and dial-in lines.

GIF A graphics file format defined by CompuServe in the 1980s. It is restricted to a total of 256 separate colors in an image. It is used today primarily for non-photographic web graphics and can include animation.

HFS file system The file system which was used on the first Macintosh computers, later replaced by HFS+. CDs and DVDs can be written with either HFS or HFS+ file systems.

IMAPI Acronym for Image Mastering API, a component of Windows XP. This is the writing software that comes with Windows XP.

Intruder An individual who gains, or attempts to gain, unauthorized access to a computer system or to gain unauthorized privileges on that system.

ISO International Standards Organization, a body which oversees the creation and distribution of standards worldwide.

ISO 9660 The standard that defines the most common CD file system.

ISO image file A quasi-standard format which supports a single session, single track data disc being described by a binary file.

Iteration A block of time, typically between one and six weeks long, in which a team plans, implements, and delivers a set of functionality.

JPEG A graphic file format that uses “lossy” compression to achieve greater compression than would otherwise be possible. This is designed for photographic images rather than computer graphics. This is defined by and named for the Joint Photographic Experts Group.

Linux A alternative operating system that was developed by the Finnish professor Linus Torvalds. It is popular in many areas today because it is free and in some respects more reliable than Microsoft Windows.

MS-DOS 2.0 In 1983 Microsoft began distributing MS-DOS 2.0 which defined partition tables for hard disks and the subdirectory structure. This was the operating system that enabled the IBM PC XT to make effective use of the 10MB hard disk it was sold with.

NTFS - Acronym for New Technology File System. This was introduced by Microsoft for Windows NT 3.1 in 1993.

OSX The current operating system for Apple Macintosh computers. This operating system is built on a UNIX-like base.

PERL Acronym for Practical and Easy Reporting Language. This is an interpreted language that has many features for processing strings. It has become the de facto standard for Regular Expression processing.

POSIX A set of application programming interface standards defined by IEEE. This is currently implemented by Linux and other UNIX and UNIX-like system vendors. Windows NT at one time had a POSIX subsystem but this has been abandoned.

Private key One of the two keys used in an asymmetric encryption system. For secure communication, the private key should only be known to its creator.

Public key One of the two keys used in an asymmetric encryption system. The public key is made public, to be used in conjunction with a corresponding private key.

(PKI) public-key infrastructure The set of hardware, software, people, policies, and procedures needed to create, manage, store, distribute, and revoke digital certificates based on asymmetric cryptography.

RSA algorithm A public-key encryption algorithm based on exponentiation in modular arithmetic. It is the only algorithm generally accepted as practical and secure for public-key encryption.

TIFF Acronym for Tagged Image File Format. This graphic file format is a generic container for a variety of formats with and without compression.

Trojan horse A computer program that appears to have a useful function, but also has a hidden and potentially malicious function that evades security mechanisms, sometimes by exploiting legitimate authorizations of a system entity that invokes the program.

UDF file system A file system derived from the ISO 13346/ECMA 167 specification. UDF is capable of storing files larger than 2GB and is therefore often used with DVD media. UDF is required for DVD Video and DVD Audio discs.

UNIX An operating system developed at Bell Laboratories in the early 1970s. It serves as the basis for most microcomputer and minicomputer operating systems today. For example, Linux and Solaris are both derived from UNIX.

UNIX file names UNIX file names are allowed to be any length and in general restricted to printable ASCII characters.

Virus Code embedded within a program that causes a copy of itself to be inserted in one or more other programs. In addition to propagation, the virus usually performs some unwanted function.

Wiki An editable intranet site where details of stories and tracking information may be recorded during development.

Worm Program that can replicate itself and send copies from computer to computer across network connections. Upon arrival, the worm may be activated to replicate and propagate again. In addition to propagation, the worm usually performs some unwanted function.

.ZIP The file extension for a ZIP archive. The ZIP archive format was originally defined by PKWare but is now supported by various libraries.

Zombie A program that secretly takes over another Internet-attached computer and then uses that computer to launch attacks that are difficult to trace to the zombie's creator.

Acronyms & Abbreviations in Software Testing

A

ACM Association for Computing Machinery.

AFIPS American Federation of Information Processing Societies.

AIAT Artificial Intelligence Applications Testing.

ANSI American National Standards Institute http://www.ansi.org/

AMC Average Method Complexity

AQAP Allied Quality Assurance Publication

ARIN American Registry for Internet Numbers

ASTF Automated Software Test Framework

ASCII American Standard Code for Information Interchange

ATP Acceptance Test Procedure

ASTF Automated software test framework

ATLM Automated testing lifecycle methodology

ATRT Automated test and retest

ATG Automated test generator

ATLM Automated testing lifecycle methodology

AUT Application under test
B
BCS British Computer Society

BERT Bit Error Test (Diagnostic Tests)

BIST Built-in self-test (Diagnostic Tests)

BS British Standard

BONDING Bandwidth On Demand Interoperability Group

BR Business Requirement

BRS Business Requirement Specification.

BS7925-1 British Standard BS 7925-1 Vocabulary of terms in software testing

BVA Boundary Value Analysis
C
CA Configuration accounting

CASE Computer-Aided Software Engineering

CC Configuration control

CDR Critical design review

CE Critical error

CERT Computer Emergency Response Team

CHAP Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol

CISP Cardholder information security program

CI Configuration item

CID Configuration identification

CM Configuration management

CMM Capability Maturity Model

CMMI Capability Maturity Model Integrated

CMP Configuration management plan

CMT Configuration Management Tool

COA Cost of achievement

COPS Common Open Policy Service

CORBA Common Object Request Broker Architecture

COTS Commercial Off-The-Shelf

COF Cost of failure

CR Change Request

CRC Class, Responsibility, Collaboration

COQ cost of quality

CRUD Create, Read, Update, Delete
D
DARPA Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

DDD Database design document

DDS Data distribution service

DBA Dynamic Bandwidth Allocation

DDS Digital Data System

DES Data -Encryption Standard

DEF Defense Standard

DHS Department of Homeland Security (U.S.)

DDD Detailed Design Document

DFD Data Flow Diagram

DOD Department Of Defense (USA)

DOM Document Object Model

DRE Defect Removal Efficiency

DSDM Dynamic Systems Development Methodology

DTI Department of Trade and Industry —(UK)
E
ECMA European Computer Manufacturers Association

EIA Electronic Industries Association

ERD Entity Relationship Diagram

ETSI European Telecom Standards Institute
F
FDD Functional Design Document

FDD Feature driven development - software development process. It is one of a number of Agile methods for developing software.

FVT Function verification test

FA Functional audit

FAQ Frequently Asked Questions

FTP File Transfer Protocol

FDA Food and Drug Administration

FnPt Function point

FC Function Count

FISMA Federal Information Security Management Act —(U.S.)

FP Function Point

FTC Federal Trade Commission —(U.S.)
G
GOSIP Government Open Systems Interconnection Profile

GUI Graphical User Interface
H
HCM Hardware configuration management

HIPAA Healthcare Portability and Accountability Act of 1996

HIPO Hierarchy, Input, Processing, Output

HOL Higher Order Logic
I
IDE Integrated Development Environment

IDD Interface design document

IEC International Electrotechnical Commission

IEEE Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers

IDL Interface design language

IRC Internet relay chat

I-P-0 Input-Process-Output

IPsec Internet Protocol Security

ISAKMP Internet Security Association and Key Management Protocol

ISDN Integrated Services Digital Network

lSLE Integrated Software Lifecycle Environment

ISO International Organization for Standards
J
JAD Joint Application Development

JTC1 Joint Technical Committee 1
K
KBSA Knowledge-Based Software Assistant

KLOC Thousands of lines of code
L
LCL Lower control limit

LCSAJ Linear Code Sequence And Jump (a software analysis method)

LOC Lines of code

LSRT Long-Sequence Regression Testing
M
MDD Model-driven development (agile model-driven development - AMDD)

MOD Ministry of Defence —(UK)

MoSCoW M - MUST have this; S - SHOULD have this if at all possible; C - COULD have this if it does not affect anything else; W - WON'T have this time but WOULD like in the future.

MTBF Mean Time Between Failure

MTTF Mean Time To Fail

MTTR Mean Time To Repair

MTTCF Mean time to critical failure
N
NCSA National Cyber Security Alliance

NFR Nonfunctional requirements

NIST National Institute of Standards and Technology

NBS National British standard

O
ORD Object Relationship Diagram

OCM Operational configuration management

OSI Open Systems Interconnection
P
PA Physical audit

PCA Performance and Coverage Analysis

PDR Preliminary design review

PERT Program Evaluation and Review technique Diagram

PIR Postimplementation review

PCRTS Problem and Change Request Tracking System

PIM Platform-Independent Model

PIPEDA Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act

PIM Platform-independent model

POF Probability of Failure

POST Power- On Self - Test (Diagnostic Tests)

PSI Platform-Specific Implementation

PT Problem Ticket

PTR Problem trouble report
Q
QA Quality Assurance

QC Quality Control

QMS Quality Management System

QoS Quality of Service

QUES Quality Evaluation System
R
RAD Rapid Application Development

RAT Real Application Testing [Abbreviation used by Oracle]

RCA Root cause analysis

RTM Requirements traceability matrix

RFC Request for Change

RFC Request for comments

RFP Request for Proposal

RMI Remote Method Invocation

ROI Return on Investment

RIB Reflexive User Interface Builder

RTM Requirements traceability matrix

RST Reverse Semantic Traceability
S
SA Structured Analysis

SADT Systems Analysis and Design Technique

SCA Static Code Analysis

SC Security Checklist

SCA Source Code Analyzer

SCR Software Change Request

SDK Software Development Kit

SC Standards committee

SDLC Software development life cycle

SDP Software development plan

SEI Software Engineering Institute

SG Standards group

SIR System Investigation Report

SLC Software life cycle

SQS Software quality system

SQSP Software quality system plan

SRR Software requirements review

SDD System and software design document

SMARTS Software Maintenance and Regression Test System

SSH Secure Shell

SOA Service-oriented architecture

STAF Software testing automation framework

Std standard (IEEE designation)

STEP Systematic Test and Evaluation Process

START Structured Testing and Requirements Tool

STL Software testing lifecycle

STR Software trouble report

STR System trouble report

SUT System Under Test
T
TCAT Test Coverage Analysis Tool

TCB Trusted Computing Base

TCDY Test case design yield

TDD Test-driven development

TDGEN Test filelData Generator

TLS The Transport Layer Security

TOE Target of Evaluation

TPT Time Partition Testing

TQC Total quality control

TTCN Testing and Test Control Notation

TTCN-1 Tree and Tabular Combined Notation version 1

TTM Test traceability matrix

TRR Test readiness review
U
UCL upper control limit

UDF unit development folder

UML Unified Modelling Language

UDDI Universal Description, Discovery and Integration

UML TP UML Testing Profile

URI Uniform Resource Identifier

URL Uniform Resource Locator

USM User-based Security Model

UTC Usability-Test Candidate

X
XP eXtreme Programming
V
VE Virtual environment

V&V Verification and validation

VNC Virtual network computing

Acronyms & Abbreviations in Software Development

A
ACM— Association for Computing Machinery

ACS— Access Control Server

AICPA—  American Institute of Certified PublicAccountants

AICPASGP — AICPA Standard of Good Practice

AICPATSC —  AICPA Trust Services Criteria

AMC— Average Method Complexity

API— Application Programming Interface

AQAP  — Allied Quality Assurance Publication

ARS— Automated Reasoning Systems

asap— As Soon As Possible

ASBDC-US— Association of Small Business Development Centers

ASL— Action Specification Language

ASP— Active Server Pages

ATP— Acceptance Test Procedure
B

BIS— Bank for International Settlements

BITS— BITS Framework: Managing Technology Risk for Information Technology ServiceProvider Relationships

BNF— Backus–Naur Form

BOGSAT— Bunch of Guys Sitting Around a Table

BPM— Business Performance Measure

BSA— Business Software Alliance
C

CACM— Communications of the Association for Computing Machinery

CASE— Computer-Aided Software Engineering

CBO— Coupling Between Object Classes

CCM— CORBA Component Model

CERT— Computer Emergency Response Team

CFC— Central Flow Control

CGF— Corporate Governance Framework

CGI— Common Gateway Interface

CIAO— Critical Infrastructure Assurance Office

CIS— Center for Internet Security

COBIT— Control Objectives for Information and Related Technologies

COCOMO— Constructive Cost Model

CORBA— Common Object Request Broker Architecture

COSO— Committee on Sponsoring Organizations

CSE— Communications Security Establishment

CWM— Common Warehouse Metamodel
D

DACC— Design Assertion Consistency Checker

DCL— DEC Control Language

DEFSTAN — Defense Standard

DFD— Dataflow Diagram

DHS—Department of Homeland Security (U.S.)

DIT— Depth of Inheritance Tree

DMP— Deficiency Management Plan

DMZ— Demilitarized Zone

DOM— Document Object Model

DSDM— Dynamic Systems Development Method

DSI— Delivered Source Instruction

DSML— Domain-Specific Modeling Language

DTI— Department of Trade and Industry (UK)
E

EDEM— Expectation-Driven Event Monitoring

EJB— Enterprise Java Beans

ETA— Event Tree Analysis

ETSI— European Telecom Standards Institute
F

FMEA– Failure mode and effective analysis

FMECA— Failure Mode Effects and Criticality Analysis

FSM— Finite State Machine

FSR— Financial Services Roundtable

FTA—  Fault Tree Analysis
G

GAISPC— Generally Accepted Information Security Principles Committee

GAPP— Generally Accepted Principles and Practices

GASSP— Generally Accepted System Security Principles

GIGO— Garbage In, Garbage Out
H

HIPAA— Health Information Portability and Accountability Act

HTML— Hypertext Markup Language

HTTP— Hypertext Transfer Protocol
I

IAIP— Information Assurance and Infrastructure Protection (Directorate of the DHS)

ICAEW—Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales

ICE—In-Circuit Emulator

IDEF—Military equivalent of SADT

IDL—Interface Description Language

IIA—The Institute of Internal Auditors

IIOP—Internet Inter ORB Protocol

IP—  Intellectual Property

ISACA— The Information Systems Audit and Control Association

ISAPI— Internet Server Application Programming Interface

ISF— Information Security Forum

ISG— Information Security Governance

ISSA—Information Systems Security Association

ITCG— Information Technology: Control Guidelines 1998

ITGIG— IT Governance Implementation Guide

ITT— Initial Training Time

ITT— Invitation To Tender
J

J2EE— Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition
K

KDSI— 1000 DSIs

KPQM— Key Performance Quality Measure (aka BPM)
L

LCSAJ— Linear Code Sequence and Jump

LDRA— Liverpool Data Research Associates

LISI— Levels of Information Systems Interoperability
M

MDA— Model-Driven Architecture

MDD— Model-Driven Development

MOD- Ministry of Defense — (UK)

MOF-  Meta-Object Facility — (In UML )

MPI— Merchant server Plug-In
N

NCSS— Non-Commented Source Statements

NIST— National Institute for Standards and Technology

NOC— Number of Children

NSAPI— Netscape Server Application Programming Interface
O

OCT— Operationally Critical Threat

OMG— Object Management Group

OMT— Object Modeling Technique
P

PCA— Performance and Coverage Analyzer

PCAOB— Public Company Accounting Oversight Board

PCS— Partnering for Cyber Security

PIM— Platform-Independent Model

PIPEDA— Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act

POF— Probability of Failure

PSI— Platform-Specific Implementation 
Q

QMS— Quality Management System

QoS— Quality of Service
R

RAD— Rapid Application Development

RFC— Request for Change

RFC— Response for a Class

RFP— Request for Proposal

RMI— Remote Method Invocation

ROI— Return on Investment

RSS— Rich Site Summary
S

SADT— Systems Analysis and Design Technique

SC— Security Checklist

SCA— Source Code Analyzer

SCR— Software Change Request

SDK— Software Development Kit

SEI—Software Engineering Institute (Carnegie Mellon University)

SME— Subject Matter Expert

SNAC— Systems and Network Attack Center

SOAP— Simple Object Access Protocol

SOX— Sarbanes–Oxley Act

SPEC— Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation

STT— Subsequent Training Time
T

TCB— Trusted Computing Base

TOE— Target of Evaluation
U

UDDI— Universal Description, Discovery and Integration

UML— Universal Modeling Language

URI— Uniform Resource Identifier

URL— Uniform Resource Locator

UTC— Usability-Test Candidate

UTCS— UTC Score
V

VAF— Value Adjustment Factor

VEE— Virtual Execution Environment
W

WMC— Weighted Methods per Class

WSDL— Web Services Description Language
X

XMI— XML Metadata Interchange

XML— eXtensible Markup Language

XP— eXtreme Programming