Software inspection benchmarking-a qualitative and quantitative comparative opportunity

Software inspections are commonly used throughout the software industry, but there are still open questions about the relationship between inspection processes and inspection effectiveness. For example, which techniques work best in various environments? Are requirements specifications inspections and code inspections different in terms of effectiveness? What is the effectiveness in inspections for different group sizes? Benchmarking provides an opportunity to address such issues. This paper discusses how benchmarking may be applied for software inspections. The discussion is illustrated with an empirical study. It is shown how the data can be used to plan and manage software inspections. It is concluded that software inspections are well suited for benchmarking and that software practitioners as well as researchers can learn valuable lessons.

[1]  Claes Wohlin,et al.  Defect content estimations from review data , 1998, Proceedings of the 20th International Conference on Software Engineering.

[2]  Lionel C. Briand,et al.  Using simulation to build inspection efficiency benchmarks for development projects , 1998, Proceedings of the 20th International Conference on Software Engineering.

[3]  James Miller.  Can results from software engineering experiments be safely combined? , 1999, Proceedings Sixth International Software Metrics Symposium (Cat. No.PR00403).

[4]  Will Hayes,et al.  Research synthesis in software engineering: a case for meta-analysis , 1999, Proceedings Sixth International Software Metrics Symposium (Cat. No.PR00403).

[5]  Isabella Wieczorek,et al.  Applying Benchmarking to Learn from Best Practices , 2000, PROFES.

[6]  Katrina Maxwell,et al.  Benchmarking Software-Development Productivity - Applied Research Results , 2000, IEEE Softw..

[7]  D. Longbottom.  Benchmarking in the UK: an empirical study of practitioners and academics , 2000 .

[8]  Peter J. Middleton,et al.  Software Inspection , 1994, J. Inf. Technol..

[9]  Chris Sauer,et al.  Technical Reviews: A Behaviorally Motivated Program of Research , 2022 .

[10]  Barbara A. Kitchenham,et al.  Combining empirical results in software engineering , 1998, Inf. Softw. Technol..

[11]  Computer Staff.  Software Challenges , 1995 .

[12]  Pervaiz K. Ahmed,et al.  Integrated benchmarking: a holistic examination of select techniques for benchmarking analysis , 1998 .

[13]  Lawrence M. Corbett.  Benchmarking manufacturing performance in Australia and New Zealand , 1998 .

[14]  A. Frank Ackerman,et al.  Software inspections: an effective verification process , 1989, IEEE Software.

[15]  Forrest Shull,et al.  The empirical investigation of Perspective-Based Reading , 1995, Empirical Software Engineering.

[16]  Claes Wohlin,et al.  Experimentation in software engineering: an introduction , 2000 .

[17]  Michael E. Fagan.  Advances in software inspections , 1986, IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering.

[18]  Per Runeson,et al.  Are the Perspectives Really Different? – Further Experimentation on Scenario-Based Reading of Requirements , 2000, Empirical Software Engineering.

[19]  G. Bist,et al.  Benchmarking in technical information , 1995 .