Explore KSACs by Pathway
In late 2025, the Partnership pulled together members of industry from across tech to share how the in-demand skillsets for entry-level roles in their fields have changed in the last two years. The Knowledge, Skills & Abilities and Credentials (KSACs) below reflect their feedback on entry-level expectations, especially in a tech workplace increasingly shaped by AI.
9. Software Verification and Validation
| Label | KSAC Description | Bloom's Taxonomy Level | |
|---|---|---|---|
| a | Distinguish among the different types and levels of testing (unit, integration, systems, and acceptance). | knowledge | 1 |
| b | Describe techniques for identifying significant test cases for integration, regression and system testing. | knowledge | 2 |
| c | Create and document a set of tests for a medium-size code segment. | skill | 3 |
| d | Describe how to recognize, create, and automate continuous regression tests. | knowledge | 3 |
| e | Conduct collaborative inspections or reviews of software source code for common pitfalls or application of coding standards on a medium sized software project. | ability | 3 |
| f | Understanding of quality assurance processes, tools, and quality assurance team role in development. | knowledge | 2 |
| g | Build robust code using exception handling mechanisms. | skill | 3 |
| h | Describe secure coding and defensive coding practices. | knowledge | 2 |
| i | Rewrite a simple program to remove common vulnerabilities, such as buffer overflows, integer overflows and race conditions. | ability | 3 |
| j | Apply a defined coding standard in a small software project. | skill | 3 |
| k | Adhere to the defined coding standard in the project for new code. | skill | 2 |
| l | Write a software component that performs some non-trivial task and is resilient to common input and run-time errors. | ability | 5 |
| m | Be able to give or receive effective peer code reviews of a single commit or function. | skill | 3 |
| n | Inspect, research, and review open source code to identify privacy and security concerns. | ability | 3 |
| o | Monitor, analyze, and verify the output of generative models. | ability | 3 |
| p | Write automated tests using unit, integration, and end-to-end frameworks. | skill | 2 |
| q | Use mocking, stubbing, and dependency injection to isolate test cases. | ability | 2 |
| r | Apply static analysis and dynamic analysis tools in the development lifecycle. | ability | 2 |
Credentials
- N/A