A pattern approach to software inspection process improvement

Abstract

Concrete guidelines are often helpful when planning software process improvement. Small companies, in particular, need detailed and unambiguous instructions detailing what process areas to improve, and how to achieve the improvement. This article introduces a set of patterns to direct the improvement of the software inspection process. The pattern approach has been applied, since it has been used very successfully for knowledge-sharing purposes and other areas of software engineering. The approach involves an evaluation of the inspection process capability, setting an overall goal for the improvement and updating the process according to pre-defined actions. Experiments with initial patterns show that the method provides a feasible and quick way of making inspections more effective. Using patterns may also be beneficial when launching more wide-ranging SPI activities, as companies can run preliminary trials of the improvement process on a smaller scale first.

Survey of Software Inspection Research

“…The significance of inspections in software engineering is generally acknowledged, but their effective implementation in the software industry is a problem. Some studies have created methods that provide support for organizational inspection improvements [106][107][108]. Ideas about capability or maturity models for inspections have also been presented [4,14,109], but there exists only very few significant empirical studies on them.…”

“…Inspection impact on the development process (14) Basili & Selby (1987) [89], Bush (1990) [88], Doolan (1992) [3], Grady & Van Slack (1994) [4], Houdek et al (2002) [92], Maranzano et al (2005) [158], Müller (2004; [95,96], Roper et al (1997) [93], Runeson et al (2006) [94], Russel (1991) [5], So et al (2002) [91], Weller (1993) [159], Zheng et al (2006) [97]. Management view (27) Other management topics (13) Barnard & Price (1994) [98], Briand et al (1998) [100], Chaar et al (1993) [105], Chatzigeorgiou & Antoniadis (2003) [102], Denger & Shull (2007) [106], Freimut et al (2005) [101], Hall & Fenton (1996) [160], Harjumaa (2005) [107], Iisakka & Tervonen (1998)…”

ICMM—a maturity model for software inspections

“…Inspection patterns may be useful approach in planning concrete improvement actions. Harjumaa 62 has defined seven different process patterns for software inspection improvement. First, the organization has to define the state of the current practices and has to define goals for the process improvement.…”

A simplified model for software inspection

“…After the seminal work by Fagan's work on inspection, a number of new inspection techniques have been developed. Amongst the number of published references on this issue, we highlight some relevant contributions in this area . In general, most of the inspection proposals adopt Fagan's technique, although they provide some process alternatives.…”