Test-case Driven versus Checklist-based Inspections of Software Requirements - An Experimental Evaluation

Software inspections have proved to be an effective means to find faults in different software artifacts, and the application of software inspections on requirements specifications is believed to give a high return on investment as problems are caught early. However, despite the existing evidence of positive effects requirements inspections are not a common practice in industry. The reason is believed to be the cost associated with inspections as a technology. This paper presents an evaluation of test-case driven inspections (TCD) an emerging inspection technique that aims to cut costs associated with traditional requirements inspections. To formally test the efficiency and effectiveness of TCD inspections an experiment was conducted, in a controlled environment, where checklist based inspections was used as a point of reference. The experiment results indicate that TCD inspections perform better when it comes to effectiveness in finding major faults in a requirements specification.