Investigating the influence of software inspection process parameters on inspection meeting performance

The question of whether inspection meetings justify their cost has been discussed in several studies. However, it is still open as to how modern defect detection techniques and team size influence meeting performance, particularly with respect to different classes of defect severity. The influence of software inspection process parameters (defect detection technique, team size, meeting effort) on defect detection effectiveness is investigated, i.e. the number of defects found for 31 teams which inspected a requirements document, to shed light on the performance of inspection meetings. The sets of defects reported by each team after the individual preparation phase (nominal-team performance) and after the team meeting (real-team performance) are compared. The main findings are that nominal teams perform significantly more effectively than real teams for all defect classes. This implies that meeting losses are on average higher than meeting gains. Meeting effort was positively correlated with meeting gains, indicating that synergy effects can only be realised if enough time is available. With regard to meeting losses, existing reports are confirmed that for a given defect, the probability of being lost in a meeting decreases with an increase in the number of inspectors who detected this defect during individual preparation.