Software Inspection

Tom Gilb is an international consultant and teacher, and the author of nine books. His main interests are in systems engineering, with specialties in software engineering and project management. Born in California in 1940, Tom has lived in Norway since 1958. More information about Tom and his work can be found at www.gilb.com.Dorothy Graham is a world-renowned consultant, speaker, and author with nearly forty years of experience in software testing. After nineteen years with Grove Consultants, she now concentrates on conferences and writing. She was Programme Chair for the 1993 and 2009 EuroSTAR conferences and holds the European Excellence Award in Software Testing. Her Addison-Wesley books include Software Inspection (coauthored with Tom Gilb in 1993), Software Test Automation (coauthored with Mark Fewster in 1999), and Experiences of Test Automation (coauthored with Mark Fewster in 2012).

• Part 1: the historical background of inspection and comparison with other methods - the historical roots, inspection and other review techniques - a comparison, inspection compared to testing; the benefits and costs of inspection - what do defects cost now?, direct savings, indirect benefits, costs of inspection, distribution of activities within the inspection process, side-effect costs; overview of software inspection - product inspection, process improvement, summary; the inspection process initiation and documents - request for inspection, the planning process, documents needed for the inspection of the product, the entry process, kickoff meeting, summary; the inspection process checking - individual checking, the logging meeting; the inspection process completion - edit, follow-up, exit; the inspection process process improvement - problem removal contrasted with problem prevention, process control concepts, process brainstorming, comparison with IBM's method, process change management team organization; the inspection leader - who is the leader?, the master plan, entry criteria, selecting materials, rates of checking and logging, selecting inspectors, assigning specialist roles, the kickoff meeting, preparing for the logging meeting, conducting the logging meeting, conducting the process brainstorming meeting, collecting, delivering and using .i.metrics, editing, verifying that work is completed, exit, managing change, managing leaders, advanced leader pointers; the inspection experience from specialist viewpoints - inspection from a checker's point of view, inspection from the author; installation and training - installation, checklists for installing inspection, formal training, summary and conclusions; overcoming the difficulties - how to be sure inspections fail, why the inspection process fails, early attempts at process improvement failed, typical installation problems and solutions; software inspections at Applicon - implementation, first year's activities, second year's activities, a combination of activities brings acceptance, long term strategy, costs, benefits, problems and solutions, keys to success, tips for implementation; one person getting started - the project - setting the scene, upstream inspection, customer visit, project success; leading inspections - "Do It Yourself" metrics, inspection roadblocks, conclusion; implementing document inspection on an unusually wide basis at an electronics manufacturer - introduction, establishing inspection within the organization, the sequence of events in implementation of inspection at MEL, benefits, costs, lesson learned at MEL; inspection at Racal Redac - organization, application, implementation, target material, politics, costs and benefits. (Part contents).