Adding diversity to software inspections

Software inspection is well known as an effective means of defect detection. Nevertheless, recent research has suggested that the technique requires further development to optimize the process. As the process is inherently group-based, one approach is to attempt to minimize the commonality within the system. This paper sets out a series of approaches to add diversity into the process, by altering the nature of the interaction between inspectors and the documents under review and by a cognitively based team selection mechanism. The paper argues that a team with diverse information processing strategies will maximize the number of different defects discovered.