Detecting defects in software requirement specification by using Fagan inspection technique

Software plays a vital role in every walk of life. In Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), requirement phase is very important and critical. The main issue is that there is no proficient inspection method to detect the defects in order to improve the quality of Software Requirement Specification (SRS). Thus, inspection based reading techniques, i.e., Checklist Based Reading technique (CBR), Defect Based Reading technique (DBR) and Perspective Based Reading technique (PBR) are used. The problem with CBR is that it only covers potential types of defects whereas DBR focused various types of defects but is not structured in nature. Similarly, PBR is not suitable as it is mainly focused on use-cases. Hence, there is no efficient inspection based technique to detect defects. Therefore, this study introduces the Fagan inspection technique, i.e.; formal and light-weighted, which avoids the deficiency of other reading techniques. Thus, the objective of this research is to develop a Fagan inspection technique for detecting defects in SRS. It is a structured process of trying to find defects in development documents such as specifications, programming code, designs and others during various phases of software development process. The proposed solution avoids the deficiency of other reading techniques. For this purpose, a questionnaire based online survey is conducted in 300 national and international software industries. As a result, 150 responses are received. The questionnaire is developed by using a Likert scale. SPSS tool is used for data entry and analysis. The consequences are drawn from developing hypotheses and using the Chi-square test. The result indicates that the Fagan inspection technique is mainly used at international level because they spend a specific portion of the project cost at its implementation as compared with national industries. According to it, the satisfaction level of defect detection is 59.2%, time saved is 48.3% and cost reduction is 40.0%. Thus, by using the proposed technique, obtained outcome is positive, which satisfies the requirements and list of problems can easily encounter.