Perspective-based Reading of Code Documents at Robert Bosch GmbH

Abstract

Despite dramatic changes in software development in the two decades since the term software engineering was coined, software quality deficiencies and cost overruns continue to afflict the software industry. Inspections, developed at IBM by Fagan in the early 1970s [1], can be used to improve upon these problems because they allow the detection and removal of defects after each phase of the software development process. But, in most published inspection processes, individuals performing defect detection are not systematically supported. There, defect detection depends heavily upon factors like chance or experience. Further, there is an ongoing debate in the literature whether or not defect detection is more effective when performed as a group activity and hence should be conducted in meetings [5],[11],[13],[14]. In this article we introduce Perspective-based Reading (PBR) for code documents, a systematic technique to support individual defect detection. PBR offers guidance to individual inspectors for defect detection. This guidance is embodie