Glossary – F

failure
(1) the execution of a defect that causes an inconsistency between an executable work product’s actual (observed) and expected (specified) behavior.
(2) the violation of a contract or assertion.
Note that an error results in a defect that may cause one or more failures to occur.
Note that a defect may or may not cause a failure depending upon whether or not the defect is executed and whether or not exception handling prevents the failure from occurring.
failure analysis
the implementation task of determining the exact nature and location of a defect in order to:
fault
Synonym for defect.
fault tree analysis
a risk management technique consisting of the identification and analysis of conditions and factors which cause or contribute to the occurrence of a defined undesirable event, usually one which significantly affects system performance, economy, safety or other required characteristics.
feature
a large cohesive set of functionality that an application or component provides in order to fulfill one or more stakeholder needs.
feature set
the set of all features that an application or component provides in order to fulfill stakeholder needs.
field support engineer
the role that is played when a person services one or more deployed applications in the field (i.e., at sites requiring the engineer to travel from his or her home office).
file server
a server computer that enables other network users to share files.
fire suppression
a hardware component used to safely suppress fires in a data center.
firewall
1) a security mechanism that limits access by a public network (e.g., the Internet) to a private system or network.
2) a software component that limits access by a public network (e.g., the Internet) to a private system or network.
3) a network connectivity device that limits access by a public network (e.g., the Internet) to a private system or network.
framework
any reusable, class library that implements a nontrivial set of capabilities capturing one or more specification, design, code, or test patterns.
framework architecture
the architecture of a framework including structure (subcomponents), mechanisms, and patterns.
frequency
how often a use case path typically executes.
function
a cohesive operation or behavior of some thing (e.g., a business, an application, or a component).
functional decomposition
a requirements analysis technique the decomposes large required functions into smaller subfunctions.
a design technique the decomposes large functional design component into smaller subfunctions.
functional requirement
a requirement that specifies a function that a business, application, or component must be able to perform.
functional testing
the system testing of an integrated, blackbox system against its operational (i.e., functional) requirements.
functional variants
(1) a user-oriented configurability quality requirement specifying the extent to which an application shall exist in multiple forms, each implementing a different subset of the operational (i.e., functional) requirements.
(2) a quality factor measuring the extent to which an application actually exist in multiple forms, each implementing a different subset of the operational (i.e., functional) requirements.
Contrast with internationalization and personalization.