WALKTHROUGH & INSPECTION

By: Puneet Meerwal 2k11/SWE/09

Quality Control Activity

Quality control is a set of activities designed to evaluate a developed work product.
It is concerned with search for defects & identify products that do not meet company standards of quality.

Review
Review are the first and primary form of Quality Control activity. A process or meeting during which a work product is examined by a project personnel for comment or approval. Reviews are cost effective. Review takes place throughout the SDLC and verify that the product of each phase are correct.

Cost-Error Relationship

25

20

Cost

15

10

Requirement

Design

Code

Test

Implementation & Maintenance

Error

Types of Review
Code Review Pair Programming Inspection Walkthrough Audit

Walkthrough
In Walkthrough a producer leads members of the development team and other interested parties through a software product, and the participants ask questions and make comments about possible errors, violation of development standards, and other problems" (IEEE Std. 1028-1997, IEEE Standard for Software Reviews, clause 38.)

Walkthrough
A walkthrough is an informal way of presenting a work product in a meeting. IEEE recommends three specialist roles in a walkthrough: -Leader: who conducts the walkthrough -Recorder: who notes all defects, decisions and actions. -Author: who presents the software product in step-bystep manner. Author guides walkthrough. Step by step presentation of product: Code, design, report, test cases Reviewers are not aware in advance of the subject/topic.

Walkthrough..
After the meeting, the work product should then be corrected by the Author to reflect any issues that were raised. The purpose of walkthrough is to: Find problems Discuss alternative solutions Focusing on demonstrating how work product meets all requirements.

Inspection
History of Inspection

Michael Fagan developed the formal software inspection process at IBM in the mid 1970. E. Yourdon was among the first to publish a book on inspections in 1978. IEEE standard covering inspections first appeared in 1988.

Inspection Roles
Author developer of work product Moderator is responsible for organizing and reporting on inspection Reader an person who guides the examination of the product Recorder an person who enters all the defects found in the defect list Inspector Member of inspection team. Often chosen to represent specific role- designer, tester, technical writer, etc

Steps of Inspection
Planning Overview Meeting Rework Follow-up

Planning
The moderator selects the inspection team. Obtains materials to be inspected from the author. Distributes them and any other relevant documents to the inspection team in advance. Materials should be distributed at least two or three days prior to the inspection

Overview
This meeting gives the author an opportunity to describe the important features of the product to the inspection team. It can be omitted if this information is already known to the other participants. Purpose is educational only.

Inspection Meeting
During this session, the team convenes and is led through the work product by the reader. During this, all inspectors can report defects or raise other issues, which are documented on a form by the recorder. Can be rescheduled if it demands. Meeting should last no more than 2 hours.

Inspection Meeting..
At its conclusion, the group agrees on an assessment of the product: -accepted as is -accepted with minor revisions -major revisions needed and a second inspection required -rebuild the product

Inspection Log Example

Rework
The author is responsible for resolving the issues raised during the inspection meeting.

Follow
To verify that the necessary rework has been performed properly. To check if an additional inspection may be required on a work product. Define explicit exit criteria for completing an inspection.

Comparison
Walkthrough Primarily used for Educational Inspection Fault Detection; Process Improvement Developer Group; Technical Expertise; No Managers

Involves

Developer Group

Led By Formality Data Collection

Author Fairly informal Defects, Comments

Moderator , Reader Very formal Rules Defect Reports; Defect Database

Conclusion
Inspections have been proven an efficient and effective method for improving software quality Inspection is more costly in time & resources than walkthrough. Inspection is more successful in finding defect. Data from Bell-Northern Research: Inspection cost: 1 hour per defect. Testing cost: 2-4 hours per defect. Post-release cost: 33 hours per defect.

References
http://www.sei.cmu.edu/str/descriptions/insp ections_body.html IEEE Std. 1028-1997, IEEE Standard for Software Reviews Daniel Freedman and Gerald Weinberg Handbook of Walkthroughs, Inspections, and Technical ReviewsThird Ed. (Dorset House, 1990)