Inspection roles, participants and process in testing. A fagan inspection is a process of trying to find defects in documents during various phases of the software development process. The process typically involves an inspection team consists of 38 members and includes these roles. Fagan inspection defines a process as a certain activity with prespecified entry and exit criteria. It is named after michael fagan who is credited with being the inventor of formal software inspections.
The goal of fagan inspection is to make sure that all the documentation is correct and clear for understanding, created up to standard. Fagan inspection refers to a structured process of trying to find defects in development documents such as programming code, specifications, designs and others during various phases of the software development process. The software inspection process as it was defined by fagan involves the inter play of five elements. It is named after michael fagan, who is credited with being the inventor of formal software inspections. A survey of software inspection checklists acm sigsoft. Rethinking software development, testing and inspection cio. Design and code inspections to reduce errors in program development. A method for detecting defects in conceptual products such as documents, design specifications, and programming code developed by michael fagan. Created by michael fagan of ibm in 1972 typically referred to as fagan inspections adaptation of statistical quality control to. A family of experiments to investigate the effects of groupware for software inspection. Author a person that creates a product that should be inspected. Since introducing the inspection process in 1974, ibm achieved significant improvements in quality. The concept of finding defects as early as possible in the software development process to save time, effort and money seems intuitive in 2001.
Invented in the early 70s by michael fagan of ibm inspired by production engineering inspection a widely applicable, rigorous and formal software engineering qc technique inspection of any. Fagan, member, ieee velopment and design and code inspections prompted the adaptation of the principles of the inspection process to inspections of requirements, user information, and docu mentation, and test plans and test cases. Fagan inspection steps, responsibilities and tasks step. For example, after inspection, the requirements definition is released for reference by the functional design specification. The fagan defect free process was invented by michaelfagan and is about getting skilled, trained observers to look at the item under inspection. It engages the developers and others in a formal process of investigation that usually detects more. Usually the inspection team checks test cases, codes, specifications, test plans etc. Michael fagan created the fagan defectfree process of which fagan inspections are a key part to address these requirements. Rethinking software development, testing and inspection michael fagan first found software inspections yielded a massive productivity improvement when working for ibm in the early 1970s. It is a structured process that involves detecting defects in development documents like programming code, specifications, designs etc. Invented in the early 70s by michael fagan of ibm inspired by production engineering inspection a widely applicable, rigorous and formal software engineering qc technique inspection of any document when it is believed complete and ready for use.
Software inspections were introduced in the 1970s at ibm, which pioneered their early adoption and later evolution. Michael fagan developed the formal software inspection process at ibm in the mid 1970s, hence the term fagan inspection. Fagan inspection steps, responsibilities and tasks step responsible team member. Inspections are a formal process used to identify and correct errors in a completed deliverable, before the deliverable is used as input to a subsequent deliverable. Michael fagan a history of software inspections inspections are now thirty years old and they continue to improve software quality and maintainability, reduce time to delivery, and lower development costs. Software inspections and the cost effective production of reliable software. He provided us with training in the fagan inspection process which. The company nearly doubled the number of lines of code shipped for system370 software products since 1976, while the number of defects per thousand lines of code was reduced by twothirds michael fagan. Michael fagan associates continous process improvement. Michael fagan helped develop the formal software inspection process at ibm, hence the term fagan inspection. Named after michael fagan, who is credited with being the inventor of formal software inspections. Software inspection is a method of static testing to verify that software meets its requirements.
This chapter discusses software inspections, which play an important role in building quality into a product. The fagan method involves defining entry and exit criteria for creation or production processes, and determining if the software. Named after michael fagan, the creator of a popular software inspection process, software inspection is also known as fagan inspection. Software inspection process input activity output planning activity organize inspections overview activity describe software.
The principal ideas behind fagan inspection can be applied to inspecting any software artifacts. Not so strong on the data collection and process improvement aspects of fagan inspections, though. The principal ideas behind fagan inspection can be applied to inspecting any software. The moderator leads the inspection, schedules meetings, controls the meetings, reports inspection results, and follows up on rework issues. In a typical fagan inspection the inspection process consists of the following operations. We discuss these six steps in the context of design and code inspection. Pdf design and code inspections to reduce errors in. Our 3day course engages every member of the development team. The wellknown fagan inspection process that was developed at ibm in. This method of quality control requires rather strict organization measures. An inspection might also be referred to as a fagan inspection after michael fagan, the creator of a very popular software inspection process. The main purpose of the software inspection is to detect errors in the available documentation. However, due to the implementation of fagan inspection, software testing company can achieve the product of high quality and reduce the number of errors on the preparatory stage of any. A form of document quality control in which a team of colleagues assists an author in assessing the quality of a documentary workproduct against predefined quality criteria.