Software Inspections

Software Inspections for Software Engineering Student Teams

What is a software inspection?

A small group of programmers who follow a specific procedure to review the source code developed by a peer with the intent of identifying defects and improving maintainability.

What's the difference between a code walkthrough, code review, and code inspection?

The terms "walkthrough" and "code review" usually refer to informal or casually prescribed methods. Inspections are more formal and quite carefully specified.

What are the elements of an inspection process?

explicit entry and exit criteria
individual preparation by inspectors
defined roles of moderator, reader, producer, and recorder
training for moderators
use of a checklist
limitation of discussion to identification and classification of defects, not solving problems.
requires successful completion of rework is necessary to complete the inspection
formal data collection, reporting, and analysis

The Inspection Process

CPE 309 teams will follow this inspection process.

Required Readings for all developers

The Case for Code Reviews An entertaining explanation of why we should bother with code reviews from a real practitioner who has been there.

Required Readings for QA mgr

Read McConnell's Software Project Survival Guide p130 - 133.
~~Braude text Ch 1 p41-44~~
Using Formal Inspections in Software Quality Assurance (By Fan, Lacy, & Fang)

How to Conduct an Informal Code Inspection (By Baldwin)

informal