Re: Inspections Was: RE: [AM] ANN: Mashing Deadly Myths

Scott E. Preece wrote:

> | From: "J. B. Rainsberger" <[email protected]>
> | 
> | Scott E. Preece wrote:
> | 
> | > The purpose of inspections is defect removal.  Pairing will remove SOME
> | > of the defects that an individual programmer would leave in the code,
> | > but not all of them.  For example, University of Utah study that
> | > Cockburn and Williams cite in "The Costs and Benefits of Pair
> | > Programming" found that pairs left 15% fewer defects in their output
> | > than individual programmers.  
> | 
> | This study does not account for promsicuous pairing over time, and 
> | therefore is unfairly compared to inspections "by multiple inspectors."
> ---
> 
> Since promiscous pairing still doesn't assure that more than two pairs
> of eyes look at any particular part of the code, there's no particular
> reason why it would improve performance in finding defects in any
> particular piece of code.

Sure it does. Over time, everyone looks at all the code.

> If you argue that a particular piece of code is likely to be worked on
> more than once in the course of a project, I would point out that that
> means it would be inspected more than once, too...

Would it? I have never been on such a project. Have you?

To reiterate, and perhaps more clearly: One study described what 
happened when /one pair/ of people working with one codebase over a 
short period of time. The other described the effect of /multiple/ 
inspectors on a given piece of code. You cannot just compare the numbers 
from these studies and expect that to mean something.
-- 
J. B. Rainsberger,
Diaspar Software Services
http://www.diasparsoftware.com :: +1 416 791-8603
Let's write software that people understand

For more information about AM, visit the Agile Modeling Home Page at www.agilemodeling.com
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