Fagan Inspection: A Defects Finding Mechanism in Software Requirements Specification (SRS) Document

Abstract

The preparation of Software Requirement Specification (SRS) document is a critical task as the successful completion of software depends heavely upon the SRS. The requirements gathering phase in Software Development Life Cycle SDLC is equally important as it witnesses the creation of an SRS document. The quality of an SRS document is dubious as there is a scarcity of proficient inspection methods for detecting the defects in the software. There are various reading based inspection techniques such as Checklist Based Reading technique (CBR), Defect Based Reading technique (DBR) and Perspective Based Reading technique (PBR). There are certain problems with these techniques such as the CBR only covers potential types of defects, The DBR focused on various defects but the problem is that it is not structured in nature. Likewise, PBR is not suitable as it mainly focused on use-cases. As owing to the absence of a suitable inspection technique, the main focus of this study is to highlight the Fagan based inspection technique. This technique is not only formal and lightweight but it also overcome the limitations of reading base d techniques. The Fagan is a structured approach and finds defects in specification, programming code, design and also others during the SDLC. During analysis a questionnaire based survey is conducted in almost 300 national and international software industries. As a result, 150 responses are received. The likert scale is used for developing the questionnaire. SPSS tool is also utilized for data entry and analysis. The consequences are drawn by developing hypothesis and using the Chi-square test. More satisfactory results are gained at international level than at the national level. The satisfaction level of defect detection is 59.2%, time saved is 48.3% and cost reduction is 40.0%. Thus, the obtained outcome is positive and satisfies the requirements.