Glossary - W



walkthrough
a verification and validation technique that consists of producer of a work product (e.g., document, software component) leading a set of evaluators though the contents of the work product in order to train them and to solicit comments and recommendations.
Note that the walkthough of an executable software unit may involve the manual testing of the unit by mentally executing test cases.
Contrast with audit, inspection, and review.
waterfall cycle
a traditional application development or life cycle consisting of essentially sequential phases that correspond one-to-one to major activities (e.g., requirements phase, architecting phase, design phase, implementation phase, integration phase, testing phase, delivery phase, maintenance phase). The waterfall cycle includes littel incremental, iterative, or parallel development.
web accellerator
a server computer that is networked between the clients and the web servers to accelerate web traffic by caching content and streaming media.
Note that web accelerators may be forward proxies located near clients or reverse proxies located near servers.
Note that web accelerators may also provide security via authentication.
webpage
an HTML page that can be downloaded and displayed via the World Wide Web.
See also home page.
web server
a server computer that serves static HTTP webpages to web browsers and forwards browser requests for dynamic webpages to application servers.
Note that web servers act as intermediaries between client browsers and application servers.
website
a cohesive collection of web pages belonging to a single customer and accessed through its home page.
website design
the design subactivity that produces the design of a website of webpages.
website design guidelines
guidelines for the design of a website and its component webpages.
Note that these guidelines should address behavior, color, content, images, look and feel, navigation, sound, and text.
whitebox testing
the testing of something based on its implementation (e.g., internal structure and logic).
Contrast with blackbox testing and graybox testing.
wide area network (WAN)
a network in which the interconnected computers and LANs are distributed widely across a large geographical area.
Contrast with local area network (LAN), metropolitan area network (MAN), and personal area network (PAN).
wireless gateway server
a server computer that enables other servers to communicate with a wireless service provider.
work breakdown structure
the management work product that documents the work to be performed on the project.
work flow
a contiguous sequence of task performances whereby producers collaborate to produce a new version of a single work product.
Contrast with activity and task.
work performance
a process component that models a work unit performed by a producer.
work product
anything of value (e.g., document, diagram, application, class) that is produced by a producer during the performance of one or more tasks. During the evolution of a work product, increasingly complete and higher quality versions of work products are created. Therefore, each work product has an associated time-ordered set of work product versions.
work product set
a cohesive collection of work products related by activity.
See also architecture set, configuration management set, deployment set, design set, implementation set, management set, process set, quality set, requirements set, and test set.
work product version
a separate version of a work product that is produced during an iterative and incremental development cycle.
workstation
any powerful personal computer used in a work setting.
work unit
a functionally-cohesive operation that is performed by a producer during the delivery cycle.
Note that a work unit is reified as an object to provide flexibility during instantiation and tailoring of a development process.
See also activity, task, and work flow.
World Wide Web (WWW)
a standard Internet software application that allows users to easily communicate over the Internet via browsers and web pages.
Contrast with Internet.