Can using Fagan Inspections improve the quality of specification in 2011? A Case Study

In this paper, we explore why Fagan Inspections have become obsolete in the software industry, given the body of evidence which supports their use to improve the quality of software artefacts and the software development process. Since the late 1970’s, much has been written about how Fagan Inspections improve the quality of both processes and outputs of the software development process. The literature indicates that the Fagan Inspection technique can improve quality of software (or other software development artefacts) by a reduction in defects of 60 – 90%. However, recent literature suggests that inspection techniques in general and Fagan Inspections in particular, are no longer used. A study in 1998 found that respondents used inspections either irregularly or not at all. Teams often review artefacts informally, but believe that they are performing an inspection or formal review. The lack of rigour in the review process results in reduced benefits and more defects in the artefacts. To explore this situation, we conducted a case study with a local enterprise and we report on the early findings. These suggest that the introduction of Fagan Inspections may have a number of benefits before they have even been introduced fully, including recognition of flaws in the current development process, development of technical knowledge relating to the software process domain, and improved team relations and a ‘quality’ culture. In addition, the personnel using Fagan Inspection gain experience in the production of ‘quality’ artefacts

Experimental Evaluation of a Checklist-Based Inspection Technique to Verify the Compliance of Software Systems with the Brazilian General Data Protection Law

Recent laws to ensure the security and protection of personal data establish new software requirements. Consequently, new technologies are needed to guarantee software quality under the perception of privacy and protection of personal data. Therefore, we created a checklist-based inspection technique (LGPDCheck) to support the identification of defects in software artifacts based on the principles established by the Brazilian General Data Protection Law (LGPD). Objective/Aim: To evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of LGPDCheck for verifying privacy and data protection (PDP) in software artifacts compared to ad-hoc techniques. Method: To assess LGPDCheck and ad-hoc techniques experimentally through a quasi-experiment (two factors, five treatments). The data will be collected from IoT-based health software systems built by software engineering students from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. The data analyses will compare results from ad-hoc and LGPDCheck inspections, the participant's effectiveness and efficiency in each trial, defects' variance and standard deviation, and time spent with the reviews. The data will be screened for outliers, and normality and homoscedasticity will be verified using the Shapiro-Wilk and Levene tests. Nonparametric or parametric tests, such as the Wilcoxon or Student's t-tests, will be applied as appropriate.Comment: Registered Report accepted for presentation at 17th ACM/IEEE International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement. New Orleans, Louisiana, United State

Towards a self-evolving software defect detection process

Software defect detection research typically focuses on individual inspection and testing techniques. However, to be effective in applying defect detection techniques, it is important to recognize when to use inspection techniques and when to use testing techniques. In addition, it is important to know when to deliver a product and use maintenance activities, such as trouble shooting and bug fixing, to address the remaining defects in the software.To be more effective detecting software defects, not only should defect detection techniques be studied and compared, but the entire software defect detection process should be studied to give us a better idea of how it can be conducted, controlled, evaluated and improved.This thesis presents a self-evolving software defect detection process (SEDD) that provides a systematic approach to software defect detection and guides us as to when inspection, testing or maintenance activities are best performed. The approach is self-evolving in that it is continuously improved by assessing the outcome of the defect detection techniques in comparison with historical data.A software architecture and prototype implementation of the approach is also presented along with a case study that was conducted to validate the approach. Initial results of using the self-evolving defect detection approach are promising

Automating the Generation of Construction Checklists

Construction inspection is a critical component of INDOT’s quality assurance (QA) program. Upon receiving an inspection notice/assignment, INDOT inspectors review the plans and specifications to identify the construction quality requirements and conduct their inspections accordingly. This manual approach to gathering inspection requirements from textual documents is time-consuming, subjective, and error-prone. This project addresses this critical issue by developing an inspection requirements database along with a set of tools to automatically gather the inspection requirements and provide field crews with customized construction checklists during the inspection with the specifics of what to check, when to check, and how to check, as well as the risks and the actions to take when noncompliance is encountered. This newly developed toolset eliminates the manual effort required to acquire construction requirements, which will enhance the efficiency of the construction inspection process at INDOT. It also enables the incorporation of field-collected data to automate future compliance checking and facilitate construction documentation

Implementation of food waste composting in Malaysia

As urbanisation continues to occurring, waste management is becoming one of the major environmental problems around the world, including Malaysia. The generation of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) in Malaysia has increased more than 91% over the past decades. Based on waste composition, food waste was indicated as the main waste component. Thus, recycling of food waste through composting had emerged as a potentially viable means that local governments can reduce the waste volume that is entering the landfills. Furthermore, MSW management in Malaysia can be considered as relatively poor and disorganized. The most preferred of MSW disposal method is through landfill due to various factors. This article elaborates on composting that gives benefits to Malaysian. This paper also exposes strategy to implement the composting in Malaysia by focusing on Food Waste Management Development Plan for the Industry, Commercial and Institution Sector. The current methods of food waste composting that are applied in Malaysia are also discussed in this paper. Finally, this paper reveals the challenges towards food waste composting in Malaysia

A Survey on Usage and Diffusion of Project Risk Management Techniques and Software Tools in the Construction Industry

The area of Project Risk Management (PRM) has been extensively researched, and the utilization of various tools and techniques for managing risk in several industries has been sufficiently reported. Formal and systematic PRM practices have been made available for the construction industry. Based on such body of knowledge, this paper tries to find out the global picture of PRM practices and approaches with the help of a survey to look into the usage of PRM techniques and diffusion of software tools, their level of maturity, and their usefulness in the construction sector. Results show that, despite existing techniques and tools, their usage is limited: software tools are used only by a minority of respondents and their cost is one of the largest hurdles in adoption. Finally, the paper provides some important guidelines for future research regarding quantitative risk analysis techniques and suggestions for PRM software tools development and improvemen

Brockenhurst College: report from the Inspectorate (FEFC inspection report; 43/96 and 88/99)

Comprises two Further Education Funding Council (FEFC) inspection reports for the periods 1995-96 and 1998-99