Usage-Based Reading for Inspections of Requirements

Software inspection has proven to be an effective way to increase the quality of software products. A new reading technique suggested for software inspection, usage-based reading (UBR), has been tested in previous studies, where it showed good defect detection efficiency during inspection of design documents. This study addresses the question whether this is true also for inspections of requirements documents. The idea behind UBR is to let prioritized use-cases direct the reviewer’s focus on important parts of the document. Using graduate students as subjects, the UBR approach for inspection of requirement specification was compared with a checklist approach. All defects were classified according to their severity for the function of the final software. The result shows that reviewers using UBR do not find more defects and use more time than those using a checklist. In conclusion, in comparison with a checklist approach, UBR does not make the inspection of requirements specifications more efficient.