This article presents some evolutions in Software Inspections: e.g., 1:1 Inspections and Solo:Inspections. It shows how inspections can reduce the cost of quality.

This article describes 7 common ways that technical reviews go wrong. Symptoms of the problem, and suggestions for getting the review back on track are also presented.

Viewing security vulnerabilities as a specific type of software defect allows proven software engineering techniques for finding and fixing them to be used early in the development of the product. Finding and fixing these problems early (i.e. at the requirements or design phase) will reduce the overall risk and cost of the product. This article describes the application of a previously successful early life cycle software inspection approach (perspective-based reading [PBR] ) to the problem of software security. Excerpts from this tailored approach are provided along with guidance on it use.

The results of an extensive vulnerability assessment of a Web application can appear extensive on first review. However, it is important to understand that many Web application security holes found by such an assessment may in fact not matter to an organization's specific situation. Learn more about how to weed through such findings to establish which need to be addressed and which are in fact not urgent.

Anyone who has been exposed to Team Software Process (TSP)/ Personal Software Process (PSP) knows that its life-cycle model is based on software development, but what about TSP/PSP for software maintenance? This article tells how an inexperienced team created a TSP/PSP life-cycle model for corrective maintenance that allowed it to finish well ahead of schedule yielding a 76 percent increase in problems fixed and reducing defects by 38 percent.

Using the major new Profiler features in NetBeans 6.0, and applying profiling techniques and best practices in a real-world tutorial

The objectives of this article are to examine why software inspections are not used more widely, identify the issues contributing to their lack of use, identify why inspection benefits deteriorate for many companies, and recommend what can be done to address and solve these issues. The proven benefits of inspections are too significant to let them fall by the wayside!

You may think that code review is good but heavyweight inspection process is not practical, the next question is: How do we make reviews practical? This article describes four lightweight techniques: Over-the-shoulder, Email pass-around, Pair Programming, Tool-assisted.

Refactoring is a well-accepted practice for improving existing code. Yet, how do you find the code that should be refactored, in a consistent and repeatable manner? This installment of Automation for the people explains how to use static analysis tools to identify code smells to refactor, with examples showing how to improve odiferous code

There are many pitfalls that cause software inspections to fail. This article addresses management’s critical role in preventing these pitfalls to attain successful inspections. In addition to meeting their responsibilities, management needs a comprehensive computerized set of tools to support their efforts. By carrying out their responsibilities—supported by inspection-specific tools—management will be better equipped to implement sustained successful project inspections that consistently reap the benefits of lower project cost and high product quality.