Lasse Harjumaa

A WWW-based tool for software inspection

Software inspections, although demonstrated to be effective, have some notable drawbacks, especially when the inspection team is geographically scattered, making it difficult or even impossible to arrange meetings. A few computer tools have been introduced to deal with such problems and to ensure cost-effectiveness. Our approach to solving this problem is based on the World Wide Web which is a truly global, easy-to-use environment in which to construct such a tool. The WIP tool introduced provides a set of functions for distributing the document to be inspected, annotating it, searching related documents, choosing the checklist and gathering inspection statistics. Evaluation of the tool indicated that despite some minor deficiencies it was well liked. The idea of online commenting was pleasant and the elimination of tangling with a variety of paper documents and reports made the inspection more effective. Many test users liked the simple statistics and the tool was easy to learn and use.

Utilizing GQM+Strategies for business value analysis: an approach for evaluating business goals

Business value analysis (BVA) quantifies the factors that provide value and cost to an organization. It aims at capturing value, controlling risks, and capitalizing on opportunities. GQM+Strategies is an approach designed to aid in the definition and alignment of business goals, strategies, and an integrated measurement program at all levels in the organization. In this paper we describe how to perform business value analysis (BVA) using the GQM+Strategies approach. The integration of these two approaches provides a coupling of cost-benefit and risk analysis (value goals) with operationally measurable business goals and supports the evaluation of business goal success and the effectiveness of the chosen strategies. An application of the combined approach is provided to illustrate the feasibility of the proposed method. It deals with the business goal of modernizing the product for the evolving market.

Improving software inspection process with patterns

Concrete guidelines are often helpful, when planning software process improvement activities. Especially minor companies may have difficulties in implementing full-scale SPI programs. One solution is to focus the improvement on the most effective quality methods. This work introduces a set of patterns to direct the improvement of the software inspection process. Patterns help in setting overall goals for the improvement and describe specific actions that are needed to enhance the process. The patterns have been experimented in a software company that is carrying out a process improvement project. The experiment started with an evaluation of the inspection process capability, after which the process was updated according to determined goals. The process has been performing more effectively after the improvement effort in this case. Results of the experiment show that the pattern approach provides a feasible and quick method for launching SPI activities, although some refinements are needed to fully exploit them.

Using Software Inspection as a Catalyst for SPI in a Small Company

Process improvement activities in small and medium size enterprises (SME) are challenging due to small number of personnel and projects, people have to perform in a variety of roles. Assigning process improvement activities to the overburdened personnel may be seen as a threat to ongoing projects. Both management and staff should become convinced of the benefits of the improvement actions before taking the first step of the process. Even in this situation the software inspection provides a tempting starting point for process improvement. It is a focused and well defined subprocess and enables high return on investment benefits even in short period use. Our experiment in a small software company confirms that software inspection provides the justified starting point for process improvement. By means of the inspection maturity model the company recognises the weak points in their review practice and inspection patterns help in discovery of improvement actions.

A path to virtual software inspection

A number of computer tools have been introduced to overcome the difficulties in traditional software inspection. Actual inspection tools are rarely used, however, as the current tool implementations have some critical inadequacies. The paper briefly summarizes the evolution of computer-supported software inspection and outlines the concept of virtual software inspection, which introduces two important aspects: flexibility and integration of the tools. Paying attention to these dimensions could result in more attractive and comprehensive tools for inspection collaboration.

Peer reviews in real life - motivators and demotivators

Peer reviews are an efficient quality assurance method in software development. Several reviewing methods exist to match the needs of different organizations and situations. Still, peer reviews are not practiced as commonly as one would suppose. This study aims at finding out what types of reviewing methods are in use in software companies, surveying the most important benefits of peer reviews and investigating reasons for not utilizing reviews. The study is carried out in companies locating in the Oulu region, but the results can be generalized to all small software companies. The results show that companies that use reviews have adjusted the process for their own needs. The main motivator for arranging reviews is the decreased amount of defects in products while the other aspects of reviews, such as process improvement or knowledge sharing are not considered as important. The main demotivator for reviews is lack of time and people resources.

A pattern approach to software inspection process improvement

Concrete guidelines are often helpful when planning software process improvement. Small companies, in particular, need detailed and unambiguous instructions detailing what process areas to improve, and how to achieve the improvement. This article introduces a set of patterns to direct the improvement of the software inspection process. The pattern approach has been applied, since it has been used very successfully for knowledge-sharing purposes and other areas of software engineering. The approach involves an evaluation of the inspection process capability, setting an overall goal for the improvement and updating the process according to pre-defined actions. Experiments with initial patterns show that the method provides a feasible and quick way of making inspections more effective. Using patterns may also be beneficial when launching more wide-ranging SPI activities, as companies can run preliminary trials of the improvement process on a smaller scale first. Copyright

A tailored capability model for inspection process improvement

Software inspection is recognised as the most effective means of finding defects. In spite of its important role in software development, existing capability models have not addressed inspection issues or looked for inspection-related improvement activities to a sufficient extent. The inspection-tailored capability model presented provides a method for evaluating inspection process capability and supports the location of weak points in a companys inspection process. The first experiments reported are promising, and the evaluation process discovered correctly focused improvement ideas which were also agreed on by the company concerned.

The Web generation of software inspection: a process with virtual meetings and on-line recording

Face-to-face meetings typically provide a natural way of negotiating and collecting opinions. The problem is that these meetings also cause resource problems, i.e. they waste time and are difficult to arrange. A shift to more flexible implementations of meetings is thus an understandable alternative. We could then remove barriers to the inclusion of inspections in the development process. The present paper outlines a solution to this problem and introduces a web generation of inspections, which utilises the collaborative aspects of the latest web technology, such as virtual (distributed) meetings and online recording. Web technology facilitates the collaborative aspects of inspection. This not only introduces flexibility into the inspection meetings, but also enables easy, manageable distribution of the artefacts for inspection, including the document to be inspected, checklists, or any other related documents. We introduce in particular the WiT (Web inspection Tool) tool, the main feature of which is the ability to inspect any HTML document.

Steering the inspection process with prescriptive metrics and process patterns

Software inspection is the most powerful static quality assurance method. However, the inspection process needs to be monitored continuously and refined when it is not producing expected results. We suggest using prescriptive metrics for following the effectiveness of the inspection process and process pattern approach for introducing improvement actions that steer the process into right direction. We have analyzed the inspection process data from two year time period in a large software development organization. The data is compared to organization-specific prescriptive metrics. The measurements show that limits set by metrics are exceeded in some cases and the process needs improvement. Prescriptive metrics set helps in identifying the weak points in the process. Patterns provide a lightweight and practicable approach for defining the targets of improvement. In the case organization, prescriptive metrics and patterns worked well in instantiating the inspection process improvement.