This dissertation is an initial study into the relationship between aninspector's characteristics and his or her effectiveness in an inspection.Research has shown that improving the individual effectiveness of the inspectorsimproves the overall effectiveness of an inspection team. But, the performanceof inspectors varies widely, even when using the same inspection technique. This variation is often due to the inherent differences among the inspectors whoused the technique. In order to better understand this variation and provideguidance to inspection planners, this dissertation has focused on the backgroundand experience of the inspector as the source of variation.To study this issue I used a novel approach for software engineering, grounded theory. This methodology allowed hypotheses to be built both top-down, from theliterature, as well as bottom-up, using data. The literature portion came from software engineering as well as education and psychology. The data portion camefrom both existing studies and newly designed studies. The data from existing studies allowed the initial hypotheses to become more concrete. Once some ofthe hypotheses had support from data, the final step was to design studies to test a subset of the hypotheses.I designed and ran two studies to test the selected hypotheses. The goal of thefirst study was to understand the type and level of experience with the softwareinspection process that was necessary. The earlier data had shown that processexperience was important, but the effect of the type and level of experience wasstill unclear. The goal of the second study was to understand the interaction between an inspector's software development experience and the level of detail required in an inspection process. The earlier data had shown some indicationsthat for experienced inspectors too much detail reduced the number of defectsfound, while less experienced inspectors needed more detail to overcome their lack of experience and find more defects. This dissertation presents completelist of hypotheses and the results of these studies along with some specificsuggestions for both researchers and practitioners.
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