Abstract
Inspection is widely believed to be the most cost-effective method for detecting defects in documents produced during the software development lifecycle. However, it is by its very nature a labour intensive process. This has led to work on computer support for the process which should increase the efficiency and effectiveness beyond what is currently possible with a solely manual process. In this paper, we first of all describe current approaches to automation of the inspection process. There are four main areas of inspection which have been the target for computer support: document handling, individual preparation, meeting support and metrics collection. We then describe five tools which have been developed to support the inspection process and compare the capabilities of these tools. This is followed by a fuller discussion of the features which could be provided by computer support for inspection and the gains that may be achieved by using such support.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ackerman, A. F., Buchwald, L. S., and Lewski, F. H. 1989. “Software Inspections: An Effective Verification Process,” IEEE Software, (6)3:31–36.
Brothers, L., Sembugamoorthy, V. and Muller, M. 1990. “ICICLE: Groupware for Code Inspections,” In Proceedings of the 1990 ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, ACM, October, pp. 169–181.
Doolan, E. P. 1992. “Experience with Fagan's Inspection Method,” Software — Practice and Experience, (22)2:173–182.
Fagan, M. E. 1976. “Design and Code Inspections to Reduce Errors in Program Development,” IBM System Journal, (15)3:182–211.
Fagan, M. E. 1986. “Advances in Software Inspection,” IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, (12)7:744–751.
Gilb, T. and Graham, D. 1993 Software Inspection. Addison-Wesley.
Gintell, J. W., Arnold, J., Houde, M., Kruszelnicki, J., McKenney, R. and Memmi, G. 1993. “Scrutiny: A Collaborative Inspection and Review System,” In Proceedings of the 4th European Software Engineering Conference.
Humphrey, W. S. 1989. Managing the Software Process, Addison-Wesley
Ishii, H., Kobayashi, M. and Arita, K. 1994. “Iterative Design of Seamless Collaboration Media,” Communications of the ACM, (37)8:83–97.
Johnson, P. and Tjahjono, D. 1993. “CSRS Users Guide,” Technical Report ICS-TR-93-16, Department of Information and Computer Sciences, University of Hawaii.
Johnson, P. 1994a. “An Instrumented Approach to Improving Software Quality Through Formal Technical Review,” In Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Software Engineering, May.
Johnson, P. 1994b. “Supporting Technology Transfer of Formal Technical Review Through a Computer Supported Collaborative Review System,” In Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Software Quality.
Knight, J. C. and Meyers, E. A. 1991. “Phased Inspections and their Implementation,” Software Engineering Notes, (16)3:29–35.
Knight, J. C. and Meyers, E. A. 1993. “An Improved Inspection Technique,” Communications of the ACM, (11)11:51–61.
Macdonald, F. and Miller, J. 1995 “Modelling Software Inspection Methods for the Application of Tool Support,” Technical Report RR-95-195 [EFoCS-16-95], Department of Computer Science, University of Strathclyde.
Mashayekhi, V., Drake, J. M., Tsai, W. T. and Reidl, J. 1993. “Distributed, Collaborative Software Inspection,” IEEE Software, (10)5:66–75.
Mashayekhi, V., Feulner, C. and Reidl, J. 1994. “CAIS: Collaborative Asynchronous Inspection of Software,” In Proceedings of the 2nd ACM SIGSOFT Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering, pp. 21–34.
Nunamaker, J. F., Dennis, A. R., Valaich, J. S., Vogel, D. R. and George, J. F. 1991 “Electronic Meeting Systems to Support Group Work,” Communications of the ACM, (33)2:40–61.
Reidl, J., Mashayekhi, V., Schnepf, J., Claypool, M., Frankowski, D. 1993. “SuiteSound — A System for Distributed Collaborative Multimedia,” IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering, (5)4:600–610.
Russell, G. W. 1991. “Experience with Inspections in Ultralarge-Scale Developments,” IEEE Software, (8)1:25–31.
Sembugamoorthy, V. and Brothers, L. 1990. “ICICLE: Intelligent Code Inspection in a C Language Environment,” In Proceedings of the 14th Annual Computer Software and Applications Conference, pp. 146–154.
Shaw, M. E. 1971. Group Dynamics: The Psychology of Small Group Behaviour, McGraw-Hill.
Votta, L. G. 1993. “Does Every Inspection Need a Meeting?” In Proceedings of the 1st ACM SIGSOFT Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering, pp. 107–114.
Weller, E. F. 1993. “Lessons from Three Years of Inspection Data,” IEEE Software, (10)5:38–45.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Macdonald, F., Miller, J., Brooks, A. et al. Automating the software inspection process. Autom Software Eng 3, 193–218 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00132566
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00132566