ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation THE IMPACT OF BACKG

ABSTRACTTitleofDissertation:THEIMPACTOFBACKGROUNDANDEXPERIENCEONSOFTWAREINSPECTIONS.JeffreyClarkCarver,DoctorofPhilosophy,2003Dissertationdirectedby:ProfessorVictorBasiliDepartmentofComputerScienceThisdissertationisaninitialstudyintotherelationshipbetweenaninspector’scharacteristicsandhisorhereffectivenessinaninspection.Researchhasshownthatimprovingtheindividualeffectivenessoftheinspectorsimprovestheoveralleffectivenessofaninspectionteam.But,theperformanceofinspectorsvarieswidely,evenwhenusingthesameinspectiontechnique.Thisvariationisoftenduetotheinherentdifferencesamongtheinspectorswhousedthetechnique.Inordertobetterunderstandthisvariationandprovideguidancetoinspectionplanners,thisdissertationhasfocusedonthebackgroundandexperienceoftheinspectorasthesourceofvariation.TostudythisissueIusedanovelapproachforsoftwareengineering,groundedtheory.Thismethodologyallowedhypothesestobebuiltbothtop-down,fromtheliterature,aswellasbottom-up,usingdata.Theliteratureportioncamefromsoftwareengineeringaswellaseducationandpsychology.Thedataportioncamefrombothexistingstudiesandnewlydesignedstudies.Thedatafromexistingstudiesallowedtheinitialhypothesestobecomemoreconcrete.Oncesomeofthehypotheseshadsupportfromdata,thefinalstepwastodesignstudiestotestasubsetofthehypotheses.Idesignedandrantwostudiestotesttheselectedhypotheses.Thegoalofthefirststudywastounderstandthetypeandlevelofexperiencewiththesoftwareinspectionprocessthatwasnecessary.Theearlierdatahadshownthatprocessexperiencewasimportant,buttheeffectofthetypeandlevelofexperiencewasstillunclear.Thegoalofthesecondstudywastounderstandtheinteractionbetweenaninspector’ssoftwaredevelopmentexperienceandthelevelofdetailrequiredinaninspectionprocess.Theearlierdatahadshownsomeindicationsthatforexperiencedinspectorstoomuchdetailreducedthenumberofdefectsfound,whilelessexperiencedinspectorsneededmoredetailtoovercometheirlackofexperienceandfindmoredefects.Thisdissertationpresentscompletelistofhypothesesandtheresultsofthesestudiesalongwithsomespecificsuggestionsforbothresearchersandpractitioners.THEIMPACTOFBACKGROUNDANDEXPERIENCEONSOFTWAREINSPECTIONSbyJeffreyClarkCarverDissertationsubmittedtotheFacultyoftheGraduateSchooloftheUniversityofMaryland,CollegeParkinpartialfulfillmentoftherequirementsforthedegreeofDoctorofPhilosophy2003AdvisoryCommittee:ProfessorVictorBasiliProfessorAtifMemonDr.ForrestShullProfessorClaudeWalstonProfessorMarvinZelkowitzÓCopyrightbyJeffreyClarkCarver2003iiTABLEOFCONTENTSLISTOFTABLES.............................................................................................................ivLISTOFFIGURES..........................................................................................................viii1.Introduction.................................................................................................................11.1ProductQuality...................................................................................................11.2ProcessQuality....................................................................................................21.3ProcessImprovement..........................................................................................21.4ProblemStatement..............................................................................................31.4.1Hypotheses..................................................................................................41.4.2ImpactofResults.........................................................................................42.StateoftheArt............................................................................................................62.1SoftwareQuality.................................................................................................62.2Process.................................................................................................................92.2.1ConstructionandAnalysisProcesses........................................................102.2.2ManagerialandTechnicalAspectsofProcesses.......................................102.2.3Inspections.................................................................................................112.2.4DefectReductionStudies..........................................................................122.3ProcessImprovement........................................................................................142.4ValidationLiterature.........................................................................................172.4.1DataCollectionandAnalysis....................................................................172.4.2GroundedTheory......................................................................................183.Methodology.............................................................................................................203.1Motivation.........................................................................................................203.2DevelopingalistofContextVariables...............