OPF Glossary - C

cable
a network connectivity device consisting of a copper cable that physically connects two network devices or computers.
Note that cables are typically twisted pair or coaxial.
cache
a network connectivity device used to improve performance by storing website content and offloading the delivery of content from web servers.
capacity
(1) a user-oriented performance quality requirement specifying the minimum number of objects (e.g., simultaneous users, simultaneous transactions, and customers in a database) that an application or component shall be able to support.
(2) a quantitative quality factor measuring the minimum number of objects that an application or component is actually able to support.
Contrast with latency, response time, and throughput.
CASE tool
a tool used to perform computer-aided software engineering.
center manager
the role that is played when a person performs management tasks at a center.
certification
a formal statement by a development organization that a work product meets its requirements and that it is therefore suitable for its intended use. Certification is based on a validation technique such as inspection or testing.
change case
A special kind of use case that is intended to specify a potential future behavior that will be mandatory if a probable or important change occurs to the requirements.
Contrast with misuse case.
change control
Synonym for configuration control.
change control board (CCB)
the team that evaluates the impact of proposed changes to baselined configuration items to determine when and if the changes are to be implemented.
change control board meeting minutes
a configuration management document that summarizes a single meeting of the change control board.
change request form
a configuration management work product that formally requests a change to a baselined work product.
chat server
a server computer that enables users to use client computers to instantly communicate via text, voice, and video.
checklist
a convention that consists of a list of questions concerning potential defects in a single kind of work product.
class
the [partial] definition of a kind of object. A class is the implementation of a type (a single abstraction) and may implement one or more interfaces.
class library
a cohesive collection of classes related by inheritance and delegation.
class responsibility collaborator (CRC) card
a business architecture and application design work product consisting of a large index card that informally documents the responsibilities of a:
client computer
a relatively small personal computer or workstation in a multi-tier architecture that is directly used by an actor. Client computers typically offload much of the processing and persistence to larger server computers.
See also laptop, personal computer (PC), personal digital assistant (PDA), smart card, smart phone, terminal, and workstation.
code coverage
a measurement of the adequacy of test cases in terms of the extent to which software elements (e.g., statements, decisions, branches, paths, etc.) are executed during testing.
code drop
a minor technical milestone at which point the current version of one or more software work products are delivered by the software development team to the integration team for integration into the growing and evolving application.
Contrast with document drop.
coding
the manual task of creating a software component by transforming a software design into source code written in a programming language.
Synonym for programming.
coding standards
written conventions specifying rules and guidelines for the proper use of an individual programming language's constructs, commenting, naming, and formatting, etc. The purpose of coding standards are to prevent programming errors, control complexity, and promote the understandability of the source code.
Synonym for programming standards.
collaboration diagram
an interaction diagram in the form of a graph of nodes and arcs that documents the potential interactions that can occur between related classes of objects.
Contrast with sequence diagram.
collaborator
1) a server class or type (i.e., a class or type on which the current class or type depends via delegation).
2) the collaborators of an object are those objects to which it sends messages.
commercial component testing
the testing of an individual commercial off the shelf (COTS) component.
commercial component integration testing
the integration testing of multiple commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) software components to determine if they are not interoperable (i.e., if they contain any interface defects).
commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS)
describing a component that is currently available from a vendor (i.e., not requiring any development).
communications management
the management task dealing with the efficient communication of information about an endeavor.
comparitive prototype
a throw-away prototype that is used to compare alternative designs.
Contrast with demonstrative prototype and elicitory prototype.
compatibility
a quality requirement specifying conformance to a specified interface.
Synonym for interoperability
competitor profile
the requirements work product produced during business (re)engineering that documents a single competitor of the customer organization.
complience
the quality requirement concerning the degree to which an application conforms to governmental, industrial, or customer standards.
compiler
a computer program that translates programs expressed in a high-level programming language into machine code instructions that computers must have to execute the program.
completeness
the degree to which all necessary parts of a work product exist and are included.
complexity
the degree to which the structure and behavior of an organization, application, or component is difficult to understand and verify due to its large size, the large number of relationships between its components, and the large amount of interactions required by its collaborating components to provide its capabilities.
component
an architecturally significant part of an application or framework with well-defined inbound and outbound interfaces and associated protocols that encapsulate a cohesive documented set of responsibilities. Components are reusable, and are intended to be adaptable, but not modified by their users. Components are typically intended to be used in conjunction with other compatible components from a well-architected component framework.
See also data component, hardware component, and software component.
component architecture
the essential hardware, software, personnel, and documentation components of a system, their responsibilities, their relationships, and their interfaces.
Contrast with concurrency architecture.
See also architecture.
component framework
a cohesive collection of collaborating components that have been architected to work together. The component framework defines the components, how they are related, the choice of technology (e.g., CORBA, DCOM, and RMI) used to connect them, and their specific interfaces.
component requirements engineering
the requirements engineering subactivity of engineering the requirements for an individual component.
computer
a programmable hardware component that is controlled by internally stored programs and that can perform substantial computations (including arithmetic and logic operations) without human intervention. A computer typically consists of one or more processing units, memory units, and associated peripheral input and output devices.
computer aided software engineering (CASE) tool
a software tool that supports the software engineering of computer software.
computer operator
the role that is played when a person operates one or more computers and associated peripheral equipment.
computer security incident response team (CSIRT)
a team that reacts to security incidents.
concurrency architecture
the processes and threads of an application, their responsibilities, their relationships, and how distribution units and classes of objects are allocated to them.
Contrast with component architecture.
See also architecture.
condition coverage
a test coverage criteria that requires the test cases to execute all possible outcomes taken by each condition in a decision at least once and also each interface to the item under test is invoked at least once.
Also known as decision coverage.
Contrast with branch coverage, path coverage, and statement coverage.
condition testing
the test case identification technique that selects test values so that each condition in a decision takes on all possible outcomes at least once, and each interface to the item under test is invoked at least once.
Contrast with branch testing, path testing, and statement testing.
configurability
(1) a user-oriented quality requirement specifying the degree to which an application or component shall be able to be configured into multiple variants.
(2) a quality factor measuring the degree to which an application or component actually exists in multiple variants.
See also functional variants, internationalization, and personalization.
configuration
the functional and physical characteristics of an application or its components, either as documented or as built.
configuration audit
an audit of a project's configuration.
configuration auditing
the configuration management task of auditing a baseline to verify if it is complete, correctly identified, and properly versioned.
configuration audit report
a configuration management work product that reports the results of a configuration audit.
configuration control
the configuration management task of managing changes to baselined configuration items.
Note that configuration control includes the evaluation, coordination, approval or disapproval, and implementation of changes to configuration items after formal establishment of their configuration identification.
configuration identification
the configuration management task of identifying, designating, and documenting components (with associated documentation) as configuration items and identifying baselines of configuration items.
configuration identification report
a configuration management work product that formally identifies a project's set of baselines and configuration items.
configuration item
a component with associated documentation that is designated for configuration control and treated as a single blackbox entity by the configuration management activity.
configuration management
the activity of managing an endeavor's baselines of configuration items by performing the following tasks:
configuration management plan (CMP)
a configuration management work product that documents the plans for performing configuration management on an endeavor.
configuration management planning
the configuration management task of planning the other configuration management tasks.
configuration management set
the cohesive set of work products produced during the configuration management activity.
configuration management team
the team that is responsible for proper performance of the configuration management tasks.
configuration manager
the role that is played when a person manages the configuration management activity on an endeavor by leading the configuration management team.
configuration status report
a configuration management work product that reports the current status of an application's configuration.
configuration status reporting
the configuration management task of recording and reporting the information needed to effectively manage a configuration including the:
configuration testing
the system testing of different variations of the application against its configurability requirements.
consistency
the quality requirements specifying the required degree of uniformity, standardization, and freedom from contradiction within and between work products.
constraint
a mandatory architecture, design, ore implementation decision that is treated as a requirement in that it restricts the architecture, design, and/or implementation.
constraint language
a formal language for documenting rules (e.g., that constrain the semantics of a modeling language).
construction guidelines
guidelines for instantiating the process framework (e.g., by selecting relevant process components) and thereby constructing an endeavor-specific process.
construction phase
the third application-level phase, during which the complete version of the application is developed and prepared for delivery to the customer organization.
Contrast with business strategy phase, business optimization phase, initiation phase, delivery phase, usage phase, and retirement phase.
contact center (a.k.a., call center)
An implementation work product that models a center enabling the support organization to provide technical support to the user organization(s).
contact center manager
the role that is played when a person performs management tasks at a single contact center.
content
those data components (e.g., text, numerical data, static or animated graphics, audio files, and video movie files) of an application that are published (and therefore visible) to its users.
Example: the content of a store-front website may include pictures and text describing the products sold.
Note that content typically has the following relatively sequential state model (life cycle), the states of which correspond to completion of the content management tasks:
  1. Content planned.
  2. Content ordered.
  3. Content designed.
  4. Content created, acquired, or migrated.
  5. Content entered.
  6. Content internationalized.
  7. Content edited.
  8. Content approved.
  9. Content published.
  10. Content personalized.
  11. Content transformed.
  12. Content accessed.
  13. Content usage analyzed.
  14. Content archived.
content acquisition
the content management task during which potential informational content (data components) is acquired from external content sources.
content analysis
the content management task during which content usage is analyzed.
content approval
the content management task during which edited content is approved and therefore authorized for publication to one or more applications.
content approver
the role that is played when a person approves content for incorporation into an application and release to the users.
content archive
the content management data component that contains obsolete and retired content for potential future reuse or auditing purposes.
content author
the role that is played when a person creates or obtains new textual content for one or more applications.
content cache
the content management data component that contains popular or recently accessed content in order to decrease access time.
content caching
the content management task during which content is cached to decrease the access time to popular or recently accessed content.
content creation
the content management task during which new content is identified and created.
content creator
the role that is played when a person creates or obtains new content for one or more applications.
content design
the content management task during which the content is designed and associated templates and transformation software are developed.
content designer
the role that is played when a person designs the content for one or more applications.
content director
the role that is played when a person orders the creation, acquisition, or migration of new draft content for one or more applications.
content editing
the content management task during which potential content is edited for grammer, spelling, and conformance to associated content standards (e.g., digital branding).
content editor
the role that is played when a person edits content prior to approval.
content entry
the content management task during which raw potential content is entered into a content management system.
For example: the content can be entered into a content management system, images may be scanned, text may be entered into templates, and text, images, audio files, and movie clips may be converted into the proper format and size.
content entry clerk
the role that is played when a person enters raw, legacy, or external content for one or more applications into a content management system.
content internationalization
the content management task during which the content is internationalized (e.g., translated into a foreign language).
contention testing
the system testing of an integrated application that attempts to cause failures involving actual or simulated concurrency (e.g., starvation, deadlock, livelock, race conditions, and priority inversion).
content management
the activity consisting of the cohesive collection of all tasks that are primarily performed to manage the content of one or more related applications.
See also:
content management analysis report
the content management work product documenting the results of performing the content analysis task.
content management plan
the content management work product documenting the content management team‘s plans for performing the content management tasks.
content management planning
the content management task during which during which plans for performing the remaining content management tasks are produced.
content management system
a software tool that enables content workers to perform content management tasks.
content management team
the team that manages the content of an application.
content metadata
data that describes content.
content metadata database
the content management data component consisting of a database storing content metadata.
content migration
the content management task during which approved content is published (i.e. made available for use by an application and its users).
content personalization
the content management task during which content is personalized to meet the specific desires and needs of each individual user or group of related users.
content personalization database
the content management data component consisting of a database storing user metadata for personalizing content.
content publication
the content management task during which approved content is made available for production use by an application and its users.
content publisher
the role that is played when a person publishes approved content to an application (e.g., a website).
content rights management
the content management task during which the rights of users to copy, modify, delete, print, or transmit content is controlled.
content retirement
the content management task during which obsolete content is removed from one or more applications and potentially archived for possible future use.
content transformation
the content management task during which .
content translator
the role that is played when a person translates content into or from a foreign language.
content usage analysis
the content management task during which content usage is analyzed.
content usage analyst
the specialized metrics analyst role that is played when a person collects, analyzes, and reports metrics about content delivery and usage.
content worker
the role that is played when a person performs one of the content management tasks.
context
the external environment of something to be developed, consisting of its relevant externals that interact (either directly or indirectly) with it.
context diagram
a semantic net that documents the context of a blackbox business enterprise, application, component, or framework in terms of the relevant externals that interact (either directly or indirectly) with it, and the relevant relationships between them.
contract
the management work product that models a mutually binding agreement that formally specifies the obligations of the development and customer organizations.
contractual
describing a delivery cycle in which the relationship between phases and builds is based on assertions (e.g., preconditions and postconditions).
Contrast with time-boxed.
controllable
describing an item under test, which allows the tester to control its pretest state.
convention
a process document that constrains the process.
See also checklist, example, guideline, procedure, standard, technique, template, and tool manual.
correctability (a.k.a., fixability)
(1) a developer-oriented quality requirement specifying the part of maintainability that measures the ease with which defects shall be able to be corrected in a delivered work product.
(2) a quality factor measuring the ease with which defects can be corrected in a delivered work product, usually measured in terms of mean-time-to-fix.
See also maintainability.
correctness
(1) a user-oriented quality requirement specifying the degree to which a work product (e.g., component, application, document) shall be free from defects, typically specified in terms of the degree to which it:
(2) a quality factor measuring the degree to which a work product is actually free from defects, typically measured in terms of:
See also allowable latent defects, accuracy, precision, and timeliness.
cost benefit analysis
a architecture work product produced during business engineering that documents the results of a cost/benefit analysis of a single application.
cost management
the management task that ensures that the endeavor is completed within its approved budget.
criticality
an evaluation of how important a capability (e.g., use case path) is to the client or user estimated in terms of the impact that an associated defect or failure will have on the development or operation of an application.
customer analysis
n. the requirements work product produced during business (re)engineering that documents the results of the analysis of the customer organization's current business.
vb. the business engineering task that analyzes the customer organization's current business.
Contrast with market analysis and user analysis.
customer organization
an organization that pays a development organization for an application.
customer representative
the role that is played when a person represents the customer organization in interactions with members of the development organization.
customer stakeholder profile
an informal requirements work product produced during business (re)engineering that documents a single stakeholder in the customer organization.
cycle
a top-level stage consisting of one or more related phases.
Contrast with build and milestone.
cyclomatic complexity
the number of independent basis paths through a software component, calculated as the number of decision statements plus 1.
Note that the cyclometric complexity is used to calculate the number of test cases when using basis path testing.