Introducing software engineering methods into industrial practice : module interface specification and inspection
Date
1993
Authors
Jackson, Ann Margaret
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Abstract
Despite dramatic changes in computing the two decades since the terms software crisis and software engineering were coined, problems of deficient quality and unmanageable costs continue to afflict the software industry. Improvements in the software engineering process—,method rather than tools—are now widely considered essential to bringing software quality and costs under control.
Diffusion of software process innovations in industry has occurred only slowly to date, leaving a backlog of largely untried research proposals in need of dissemination and evaluation. This thesis comprises a case study of a pilot project that introduced two such credible but less-known software engineering methods into an industrial setting.
Techniques of module interface specification and inspection were selected and adapted to the context, according to a model of software technology transfer. In order to exploit the potential of the inspection process for verifying work product properties, a verification-oriented approach was devised for paraphrasing module interface semantics during the inspection meeting.
The new methods were introduced via a carefully designed training program, and were positively received by practitioners. Process, product, and defect metrics were defined and a measurement program initiated, to support object evaluation of these technologies, and ongoing software process improvement, in the longer term. Both participant response and preliminary examination of the data collected during the pilot project, indicate that these methods are effective in industrial application.