Journal Article

The Impact of Design and Code Reviews on Software Quality: An Empirical Study Based on PSP Data

Kemerer, C.F., Paulk, M.C.

2009

Overview

This research investigates the effect of review rate on defect removal effectiveness and the quality of software products, while controlling for a number of potential confounding factors. Two data sets of 371 and 246 programs, respectively, from a personal software process (PSP) approach were analyzed using both regression and mixed models. Review activities in the PSP process are those steps performed by the developer in a traditional inspection process. The results show that the PSP review rate is a significant factor affecting defect removal effectiveness, even after accounting for developer ability and other significant process variables. The recommended review rate of 200 LOC/hour or less was found to be an effective rate for individual reviews, identifying nearly two-thirds of the defects in design reviews and more than half of the defects in code reviews.

• Publisher: IEEE,IEEE Computer Society
• Subject: Accounting / Business continuity / Code reviews / Computer programs / Computer Society / Costs / Data analysis / Defects / design reviews / Developers / Digital Object Identifier / Error analysis / Inspection / Inspections / Investigations / Job shop scheduling / Lab-on-a-chip / Mathematical models / mixed models / personal software process (PSP) / Quality control / Regression / Regression analysis / Software / Software design / Software development / Software engineering / Software measurement / Software performance / software process / Software quality