Investigating the effect of Process Experience on Inspection Effectiveness

Requirements inspections are a process for improving the quality of software by allowing software developers to detect defects early in the lifecycle when they are cheaper to fix. One issue that arises is the experience level with a particular inspection technique an inspector needs before he or she is effective and efficient in using that technique. This technical report describes a study run in CMSC735 in Fall 2001. The goal of this study was to begin to understand the impact of process experience on a software inspection. Some of the subjects were given a chance to observe an inspection using the Perspective Based Reading (PBR) techniques before they had to use these techniques themselves. This report discusses how the particular experience with process was evaluated and how the efficiency and effectiveness of these subjects compared with that of the subjects who did not get the opportunity to observe someone else using PBR prior to their own use of it. General Terms Measurement, Requirements, Experimentation, Verification