Significance of depth of inspection and inspection performance metrics for consistent defect management in software industry

Abstract

Production of high-quality software is the exquisite need for accomplishing absolute customer satisfaction in software industry. Effective defect management is one of the crucial factors enabling successful development of high-quality products. Inspection and testing are two established methods of defect management domain. However, existing industry atmosphere is not stringent on the quantification of quality of process and people, in order to realise the prime objective of effective defect management. Consequently, defect capturing ability of the process and the efficacy of people are anecdotal leading towards defect manifestation and propagation during different software development stages. This study provides a case study involving empirical analysis of projects from a leading product-based software industry. The investigation strongly indicates the need for awareness and use of quality measurement of process and people in realising effective defect management. Implementation of two recently introduced quality metrics depth of inspection, a process metric and inspection performance metric, a people metric enable the developing team to generate high-quality software. The comprehension of these pair metrics in software development further augments the quality and productivity. It also reduces the expensive rework time, cost and rebinding of resources. Implementation of duo metrics reflects the persistent process improvement of the software enterprise and the resultant success.