1. Comparing the Defect Reduction Benefits of Code Inspection and Test-Driven Development.
- Author
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Wilkerson, Jerod W., Nunamaker, Jr., Jay F., and Mercer, Rick
- Subjects
- *
COMPARATIVE studies , *SOURCE code , *COMPUTER software development , *COMPUTER programmers , *COMPUTER science , *COMPUTER software testing - Abstract
This study is a quasi experiment comparing the software defect rates and implementation costs of two methods of software defect reduction: code inspection and test-driven development. We divided participants, consisting of junior and senior computer science students at a large Southwestern university, into four groups using a two-by-two, between-subjects, factorial design and asked them to complete the same programming assignment using either test-driven development, code inspection, both, or neither. We compared resulting defect counts and implementation costs across groups. We found that code inspection is more effective than test-driven development at reducing defects, but that code inspection is also more expensive. We also found that test-driven development was no more effective at reducing defects than traditional programming methods. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]
- Published
- 2012
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