Phased Inspections and Their Implementation

Inspection of software work products is common practice and has been shown to be a valuable tool for the software engineer. However, we believe that the technology is not being exploited as fully as possible. We define an enhanced inspection technique called Phased Inspection that addresses the deficiencies of existing inspection techniques. This technique is designed to permit the inspection process to be rigorous, tailorable, efficient in its use of resources, and heavily computer supported. The Phased Inspection process is designed to permit the engineer to trust the results of a specific inspection and to ensure that inspection results are repeatable. Phased Inspections inspect the work product in a series of small inspections tenned phases each of which is designed to ascertain whether the work product possesses some desirable property. The skills of the staff performing a phase are tailored to the goals of the phase, and the checking that is performed during a given phase is defined precisely and computer supported. An important goal of Phased Inspection is computer support and we present details of a toolset that supports Phased Inspection by providing the inspector with extensive computer assistance and by checking for compliance with the required process. A preliminary evaluation of Phased Inspection is also presented. -
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Myers, E, and J Knight. "Phased Inspections and Their Implementation." University of Virginia Dept. of Computer Science Tech Report (1992).