Anywhere, Anytime Code Inspections: Using the Web to Remove Inspection
Bottlenecks in Large-Scale Software Development.
Anywhere, Anytime Code Inspections: Using the Web to Remove Inspection
Bottlenecks in Large-Scale Software Development.
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Date
1998-10-15
Authors
Perpich,, James
Perry, Dewayne E.
Porter, Adam A.
Votta, Lawrence G.
Wade, Michael W.
Advisor
Citation
DRUM DOI
Abstract
The dissemination of critical information and the synchronization of
coordinated activities are critical problems in geographically separated,
large-scale, software development. While these problems are not
insurmountable, their solutions have varying trade-offs in terms of time,
cost and effectiveness. Out previous studies have shown that the
inspection interval is typically lengthened because of schedule conflicts
among inspectors which delay the (usually) required inspection collection
meeting.
We present and justify a solution using an intranet web that is both
timely in its dissemination of information and effective in its
coordination of distributed inspectors. First, exploiting a naturally
occurring experiment (reported here), we conclude that the asynchronous
collection of inspection results is at least as effective as the
synchronous collection of those results. Second, exploiting the
information dissemination qualities and the on-demand nature of
information retrieval of the web, and the platform independence of
browsers, e build an inexpensive tool that integrates seamlessly into the
current development process. By seamless we man an identical paper flow
that results in an almost identical inspection process.
The acceptance of the inspection tool has been excellent. The cost
savings just from the reduction in paper work and the time savings from
the reduction in distribution interval of the inspection package
(sometimes involving international mailings) have been substantial. These
savings together with the seamless integration into the existing
environment are the major factors for this acceptance. From our viewpoint
as experimentalists, the acceptance came too readily. Therefor we lost
our opportunity to explore this tool using a series of controlled
experiments to isolate the underlying factors or its effectiveness.
Nevertheless, by using historical data we can show that the new process is
less expensive in terms of cost and at least as effective in terms of
quality (defect detection effectiveness).
(Also cross-referenced as UMIACS-TR-97-17)