THROUGH A COMPUTER SUPPORTED COLLABORATIVE REVIEW SYSTEM

Formal technical review (FTR) is an essential component of all modern software quality assessment,assurance, and improvement techniques, and is acknowledged to be the most cost-effective form of quality improvement when practiced effectively. However, traditional FTR methods such as inspection are very difficult to adopt in organizations: they introduce substantial new up-front costs, training, overhead, and group process obstacles. Sustained commitment from high-level management along with substantial resources is often necessary for successful technology transfer of FTR. Since 1991, we have been designing and evaluating a series of versions of a system called CSRS: an instrumented, computer-supported cooperative work environment for formal technical review. The current version of CSRS includes an FTR method definition language, which allows organizations to design their own FTR method, and to evolve it over time. This paper describes how our approach to computer supported FTR can address some of the issues in technology transfer of FTR.

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