IfSQ

Code Inspection Powers Up Testing Strategies

Software code inspection is more cost-effective and isolates defects more efficiently than testing. Combine inspection and testing to get the best strategy for defect removal.

Research has yielded these findings:

• Microsoft's applications division has found that it takes 3 hours to find and fix a defect using code inspection compared to 12 hours by using testing.
• The combination of design and code inspections usually removes at least 70% of the defects in a product.
• Detection of design defects costs 6 times more using testing than by using inspections.
• Code inspection at NASA's Software Engineering Laboratory found 20 to 60 percent more errors than testing did.