A groupware-supported inspection process for active inspection management

Inspection is an important approach to reduce defects in software engineering artifacts. However, research and practice show that the performance of manual inspections fluctuates considerably. Based on experiences we gained in large-scale controlled inspection experiments we propose a concept for improved inspection management relying on (a) the transparent collection of detailed data on the actual inspection process and (b) groupware support for the flexible combination of inspection process modeling and data-driven process analysis. We expect an automated approach to be of versatile help both for researchers who use it for monitoring controlled experiments and for practitioners who may use it as part Of their infrastructure for inspection management and transparent data collection.