Distributed, collaborative software inspection

The Collaborative Software Inspection (CSI) tool, which provides a distributed, structured environment for performing inspections on all software-development products, including specifications, designs, code, and test cases, is described. The inspection environment lets geographically distributed inspection participants meet with people in other cities through workstations at their desks. The current version of all material is accessible online. Inspection products are created online, so secondary data entry to permanent records is not necessary. The inspection information is also available for review and metrics collection. To assess the effectiveness of inspection in the distributive collaborative environment and compare it with face-to-face meetings, a case-study approach with replication logic is presented.<>