University of Montana, Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library
Abstract
This thesis examines the difference between accepted theoretical and real world return on investment of requirements, design, and code reviews. The differences have a significant impact on the cost of quality. The goal of this thesis is to examine the differences between two data sets (one derived from widely accepted software principles and one derived from real-world data) and draw conclusions about the effectiveness (cost vs. increase defect detection) of reviews based upon these analyses. This thesis will compare accepted relationships pertaining to cost per defect and overall project cost against actual data from a real world project in order to discover any significant differences. This research will also develop a cost estimation tool than may be used in future research to further develop the ideas and conclusions from this thesis. This author speculates that the cost benefit of reviews will decrease as the amount of time devoted to the review increases. This is contradictory to the accepted project management literature currently in wide use today
