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Start   >  Master's & postgraduate courses  >  Education  >  Postgraduate course in Software Quality Assurance
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  • discount

    Are you UPC Alumni? 15% discount if you enroll before July 1

  • discount

    10% discount if you enrol before 1 July

Presentation

Edition
8th Edition
Credits
20 ECTS (172 teaching hours)
Delivery
Face-to-face
Language of instruction
Catalan / Spanish
Fee
€4,100 €3,690(10% discount if you enrol before 1 July)
Payment of enrolment fee options

The enrolment fee can be paid:
- In a single payment to be paid within the deadline specified in the letter of admission to the programme.
- In two instalments:

  • 60% of the amount payable, to be paid within the deadline specified in the letter of admission to the programme.
  • Remaining 40% to be paid up to 60 days at the latest after the starting date of the programme.
Notes 0,7% campaign

Registration open until the beginning of the course or until end of vacancies.
Start date
Start date: November of 2024
End date: July of 2025
Timetable
Tuesday: 6:00 pm to 10:00 pm
Thursday: 6:00 pm to 10:00 pm
Taught at
Tech Talent Center
C/ de Badajoz, 73-77
Barcelona
Why this postgraduate course?

Software is part of most everyday activities today. Software bugs therefore have an economic and social impact for companies, institutions and for society in general. Examples include when it is impossible to make an online reservation that is crucial for a company's business, when an air accident occurs because of a bug in information systems, when an organisation erroneously bills for its services, when a system allows quality standards to be breached (Software Quality Assurance - SQA) during the software's development, delivery and maintenance process.

Recent history contains many examples of major consequences arising from software errors. An inadequate SQA strategy increases the risk of errors and as a result, the consequences for users and for organisations responsible for the software, which can have a major impact in some cases (millions of euros in losses, diplomatic conflicts, loss of human life, etc). The effects are varied and can range from income and business volume to reputation. In the United States, for example, a study conducted in 2012 by the US Department of Commerce entitled The Economic Impacts of Inadequate Infrastructure for Software Testing revealed that "the national annual costs of an inadequate infrastructure for software testing is estimated to range from $22.2 to $59.5 billion".

Today, the search for flexibility in the development process and the continuous delivery of applications also affects software quality strategies. A reduced time-to-market is an essential requirement in many software engineering contexts, which must be combined with management of a broad-based quality process. This involves various activities, ranging from defining the requirements of a system to its maintenance and delivery, through quality assurance in its development and the application of testing techniques (manual or automated) enabling the systems to be validated from various perspectives (functional, security, performance, usability, etc.)

This postgraduate programme aims to train professionals with a profile of experience combined strategic project management and the technical expertise required for quality assurance in software development, maintenance and processing projects. The market demands that companies have engineers qualified in this field. For this reason, the UPC School has created this postgraduate programme, with the collaboration of the company main Sogeti España and the best professionals.

The program offers the possibility of internships in Sogeti España. During this period the student will be able to expand and implement the knowledge acquired in class and extend their professional network within the sector.

An advanced level of English is required to take full advantage of the programme.

Promoted by:
Aims
  • To train engineers specialising in SQA.
  • To meet the need for this professional profile in today's software engineering market, in which there are challenges such as reducing maintenance costs, reaction to ongoing changes, investment in improvement processes in software projects, the consolidation of quality assurance activities, a cross-disciplinary perspective, etc.

Who is it for?
  • Graduates in computer engineering and related degrees and/or professional experience in software engineering.

Training Content

List of subjects
1 ECTS 16h
Introduction & Requirements Engineering
  • Purpose and motivation of the quality assurance systems software.
  • Software economics and ROI.
  • Short review of software engineering methods.
  • History and case studies.
  • Ensuring software quality as a cross-wise activity.
  • Requirements Engineering as a base for Software Quality Assurance.
  • Specification techniques (requirements in natural language, use cases, models, business process models and user stories).
  • Prototyping.
  • Business-driven development (BDD).
  • Model-driven engineering (MDE).
  • Acceptance criteria & validation techniques.
  • Prioritization.
  • RE in different domains: embedded software, off-the-shelf, Internet & mobile, government, health care, banking, etc.
  • Tool-based hands-on exercises.
6 ECTS 68h
Software Testing
  • Introduction and motivation.
  • History, evolution and challenges of testing.
  • Testing levels (unit testing, system testing, integration testing, user acceptance testing, performance testing, usability testing, sanity testing, security testing).
  • Testing types (smoke testing, functional testing, regression testing).
  • Tests design techniques.
  • Coverage and impact analysis.
  • Beta testing/ alpha testing.
  • Testing & knowledge management.
  • Security testing.
  • Test automation.
  • Testing in regulated environments.
  • Testing in different domains.
  • Testing of APIs.
  • Tool-based hands-on exercises.
2 ECTS 20h
Quality in Software Engineering
  • Quality Assurance in Software Development Methodologies.
  • Quality models and standards (CMMI, ISO, ...).
  • Code inspections & reviews.
  • Knowledge and Technical Debt.
4 ECTS 24h
Quality in Agile Methods
  • User stories.
  • Test-driven development (TDD).
  • Extreme Programming (XP).
  • Acceptance Test-Driven Development (ATDD).
  • Tool-based hands-on exercises.
1 ECTS 12h
DevOps and Continuous Integration
  • DevOps. Continuous integration and continuous delivery.
  • Customer support.
  • Software and product maintenance (ticketing, bug tracking, escalation).
  • Transformation projects.
  • Tool-based hands-on exercises.
2 ECTS 28h
Cross-Wise Software Quality Management
  • Definition of a Software Quality strategy.
  • Risks management.
  • Decision matrices and KPIs.
  • Project Management Professional (PMP).
  • Roadmaps.
  • Existing tools for cross-wise Quality Management.
  • Tool-based hands-on exercises.
4 ECTS 4h
Course Project

The final project will be based on the following characteristics:

  • It will be a contribution in the context of a real project of a company.
  • It will be a way to promote technical innovation and to improve the quality assurance practices, taking the contents of the program as a base.

The project can be done individually or in previously defined gorups. It will be advised by a standing project manager.

The UPC School reserves the right to modify the contents of the programme, which may vary in order to better accommodate the course objectives.
Degree
Postgraduate qualification issued by the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. Issued by virtue of the provisions of art. 7.1 of Organic Law 2/2023 of 22 March, concerning the University System, and art. 36 of Royal Decree 822/2021 of 28 September, which establishes the organisation of university education and the procedure for ensuring its quality. A prior official university qualification is necessary to obtain it. Otherwise, the student will receive a certificate of completion of the course issued by the Fundació Politècnica de Catalunya. Lifelong learning studies at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya are approved by the University's Governing Council on an annual basis. (See details appearing on the certificate).

Learning methodology

The teaching methodology of the programme facilitates the student's learning and the achievement of the necessary competences.



Learning tools
Participatory lectures
A presentation of the conceptual foundations of the content to be taught, promoting interaction with the students to guide them in their learning of the different contents and the development of the established competences.
Practical classroom sessions
Knowledge is applied to a real or hypothetical environment, where specific aspects are identified and worked on to facilitate understanding, with the support from teaching staff.
Solving exercises
Solutions are worked on by practising routines, applying formulas and algorithms, and procedures are followed for transforming the available information and interpreting the results.
Case studies
Real or hypothetical situations are presented in which the students, in a completely participatory and practical way, examine the situation, consider the various hypotheses and share their own conclusions.
Success stories
Outstanding business knowledge and experiences with high added value acquired during an outstanding professional career are presented and shared.
Visits
These visits are to specialist centres, companies in the sector or outstanding and important locations in the sector, in order to obtain knowledge in situ of development, production and demonstration environments within the programme.
Problem-based learning (PBL)
An active learning methodology that enables the student to be involved from the beginning, and to acquire knowledge and skills by considering and resolving complex problems and situations.
Business Game
Game thinking and its mechanics are used to solve certain problems or to make decisions, in order to motivate students in the learning process and to provide some results for analysis.
Tutorship
Students are given technical support in the preparation of the final project, according to their specialisation and the subject matter of the project.
Assessment criteria
Attendance
At least 80% attendance of teaching hours is required.
Level of participation
The student's active contribution to the various activities offered by the teaching team is assessed.
Solving exercises, questionnaires or exams
Individual tests aimed at assessing the degree of learning and the acquisition of competences.
Work out projects
Studies on a specific topic, by individuals or groups, in which the quality and depth of the work is assessed, among other factors.
Completion and presentation of the final project
Individual or group projects in which the contents taught in the programme are applied. The project can be based on real cases and include the identification of a problem, the design of the solution, its implementation or a business plan. The project will be presented and defended in public.
Work placements & employment service
Students can access job offers in their field of specialisation on the My_Tech_Space virtual campus. Applications made from this site will be treated confidentially. Hundreds of offers of the UPC School of Professional & Executive Development employment service appear annually. The offers range from formal contracts to work placement agreements.
Virtual campus
The students on this postgraduate course will have access to the My_ Tech_Space virtual campus - an effective platform for work and communication between the course's students, lecturers, directors and coordinators. My_Tech_Space provides the documentation for each training session before it starts, and enables students to work as a team, consult lecturers, check notes, etc.

Teaching team

Academic management
  • Sancho Samsó, Maria Ribera
    info
    View profile in futur.upc
    Former dean of the Faculty of Computer Science and lecturer in the Department of Service and Information System Engineering at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC).
  • Tort Pugibet, Albert
    info
    View profile in Linkedin
    CTO of Sogeti Spain. He was a researcher and professor at the UPC where he specialized in software engineering and quality assurance. He presented the doctoral thesis Testing and Test-Driven Development of Conceptual Schemas. He has written several publications in specialized journals and has participated in international conferences. He currently coordinates the postgraduate course in Quality Assurance Software at the UPC School and directs the Sogeti innovation laboratory (Sogeti Lab Spain).
Teaching staff
  • Álvarez Diz, Isaac
    info
    View profile in Linkedin
    Computer engineer with an extensive experience in the software quality industry. Currently, he is the associate director QA engineering in Novartis, where he is in charge of quality politics and collaborates on the digital transformation of the organization. He is a specialist in implementation and improvement of processes, tools and techniques for both test and quality assurance, tasks he has carried out in many  national and international organizations. All this combines with his assiduous participation in publications and specialized presentations.
  • Escudero Sabadell, Xavier
    info
    View profile in Linkedin
    Computer Engineer from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. Certified in Testing Advanced Manager by the International Software Testing Qualification Board (ISTQB), Agile Testing by the International Software Quality Institute (ISQI) and Professional Scrum Master I (PSM I) by Scrum.org. Expert in the implementation of methodologies, software quality and testing.
  • Estañol Lamarca, Montserrat
    info

    PhD in Computer Science and Computer engineer from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC). Professor of subjects related to software engineering at the UPC and at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya. She has worked in the private sector as a researcher and system administrator. Her research has focused on conceptual modelling, business process modelling following an artifact-centric perspective and automatic reasoning in conceptual schemes and business process models. Currently, she has her own project for the creation and maintenance of websites.
  • Lomascolo Szittyay, Rodolfo
    info
    View profile in Linkedin
    Industrial Engineer by the Technical University of Catalonia (UPC). Co-founder of Pervasive Technologies. He has more than twenty-five years of experience as an entrepreneur and in managerial positions in Spain and abroad, with a strong technical background, always related to the software industry and an orientation towards innovation. He currently directs and participates in the development of predictive models at Pervasive Technologies for demand prediction, customer retention, fraud control and in particular, for the analysis of images using neural networks (deep learning).
  • Malservisi, Giorgio
    info

    He has a degree in electronics engineering from the Polytechnic University of Milan (2000) and postgraduate degree in Business Administration and Management with "great distinction" from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (2012). He works as IT Service Delivery Manager at the company Sogeti Spain, in the Software Control & Testing department. He has worked in various sectors in the software and electronics industry as a specialist in managing the lifecycle of products.
  • Perez Macasaet, Ray James
    info
    View profile in Linkedin
    PhD in Information and Communication Technologies from the University of Granada, Spain (UGR). He is currently lead consultant at Thoughtworks.com. He has nearly two decades of experience managing software development, with teams from all the globe.
  • Pradel Miquel, Jordi
    info
    View profile in Linkedin
    Computer engineering from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC). In 2005 he founded Agilogy, a company specialising in the agile development of custom-made software, where he helps combined teams from Agilogy and the client to successfully implement agile software development methodologies in technologically complex and rapidly changing environments, using functional programming and Scrum, Kanban and XP techniques, among others.
  • Sancho Samsó, Maria Ribera
    info
    View profile in futur.upc
    Former dean of the Faculty of Computer Science and lecturer in the Department of Service and Information System Engineering at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC).
  • Tort Pugibet, Albert
    info
    View profile in Linkedin
    CTO of Sogeti Spain. He was a researcher and professor at the UPC where he specialized in software engineering and quality assurance. He presented the doctoral thesis Testing and Test-Driven Development of Conceptual Schemas. He has written several publications in specialized journals and has participated in international conferences. He currently coordinates the postgraduate course in Quality Assurance Software at the UPC School and directs the Sogeti innovation laboratory (Sogeti Lab Spain).

Associates entities

Strategic partners
  • SOGETI ESPAÑA SLU
    • Participates in the design of the contents of the programme, and ensures they are appropriate to the needs of the professional sphere.
    • Offers professional internships for students on the programme.
    • Provides teachers and lecturers.
    • Disseminates the programme in the professional sphere and area of expertise.
Collaborating partners

Career opportunities

  • Test engineer.
  • Quality assurance manager.
  • Development process consultant.
  • Consultant of transformation and improvement projects.

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How to start admission
To start the enrolment process for this programme you must complete and send the form that you will find at the bottom of these lines.

Next you will receive a welcome email detailing the three steps necessary to formalize the enrolment procedure:

1. Complete and confirm your personal details.

2. Validate your curriculum vitae and attach any additional required documentation, whenever this is necessary for admission.

3. Pay €110 in concept of the registration fee for the programme. This fee will be discounted from the total enrolment fee and will only be returned when a student isn't admitted on a programme.

Once the fee has been paid and we have all your documentation, we will assess your candidacy and, if you are admitted on the course, we will send you a letter of acceptance. This document will provide you with all the necessary information to formalize the enrolment process for the programme.




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