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Active design reviews: principles and practices

Authors:

David L. Parnas,

David M. WeissAuthors Info & Claims

ICSE '85: Proceedings of the 8th international conference on Software engineering

Pages 132 - 136

Published: 01 August 1985 Publication History

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Abstract

Although many new software design techniques have emerged in the past 15 years, there have been few changes to the procedures for reviewing the designs produced using these techniques. This paper describes an improved technique, based on the following ideas, for reviewing designs.

The efforts of each reviewer should be focussed on those aspects of the design that suit his experience and expertise.

The characteristics of the reviewers needed should be explicitly specified before reviewers are selected.

Reviewers should be asked to make positive assertions about the design rather than simply allowed to point out defects.

The designers pose questions to the reviewers, rather than vice versa. These questions are posed on a set of questionnaires that requires careful study of some aspect of the design.

Interaction between designers and reviewers occurs in small meetings involving 2 - 4 people rather than meetings of large groups.

Illustrations of these ideas drawn from the application of active design reviews to the Naval Research Laboratory's Software Cost Reduction Project are included.

References

[1]

K. Heninger, J. Kallander, D. L. Parnas, and J. Shore, "Software Requirements for the A-7E Aircraft," Memo Report 3876, Naval Research Laboratory (November 1978).

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[2]

D. Freedman and G. Weinberg, Ethnotechnical Review Handbook, Second Edition, ETHNOTECH, INC. (1979).

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[3]

M. Fagan, "Design and Code Inspection and Process Control in the Development of Programs," TR 21.572, IBM System Development Division (December 1974).

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[4]

P. C. Clements, R. A. Parker, D. L. Parnas, J. E. Shore, and K. H. Britton, "A Standard Organization for Specifying Abstract Interfaces," NRL Report 8815, Naval Research Laboratory (June 1984).

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[5]

D. L. Parnas and H. Wuerges, "Response To Undesired Events In Software Systems," Proc. Second International Conference On Software Engineering (1976).

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[6]

R. A. Parker, K. L. Heninger, D. L. Parnas, and J. E. Shore, "Abstract Interface Specifications for the A-7E Device Interface Module," Memo Report 4385, Naval Research Laboratory (November 1980).

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Li JLiu S(2023)Requirements‐related fault prevention during the transformation from formal specifications to programsIET Software10.1049/sfw2.1212617:3(316-332)Online publication date: 15-May-2023
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Dragomir IOber IPercebois C(2017)Contract-based modeling and verification of timed safety requirements within SysMLSoftware and Systems Modeling (SoSyM)10.1007/s10270-015-0481-116:2(587-624)Online publication date: 1-May-2017
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Rigby PGerman DCowen LStorey M(2014)Peer Review on Open-Source Software ProjectsACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology10.1145/259445823:4(1-33)Online publication date: 5-Sep-2014
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Index Terms

Active design reviews: principles and practices
1. Software and its engineering
  1. Software creation and management
    1. Designing software
      1. Software implementation planning
        Software design techniques
    2. Software development process management

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Published In

ICSE '85: Proceedings of the 8th international conference on Software engineering

August 1985

402 pages

ISBN:0818606207

Chairmen:
Meir M. Lehman,
Horst Hünke
Commission of European Communities, Brussels, Belgium
,
Barry Boehm
TRW-DSG, Redondo, CA

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IEEE Computer Society Press

Washington, DC, United States

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Published: 01 August 1985

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Overall Acceptance Rate 276 of 1,856 submissions, 15%

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Li JLiu S(2023)Requirements‐related fault prevention during the transformation from formal specifications to programsIET Software10.1049/sfw2.1212617:3(316-332)Online publication date: 15-May-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1049/sfw2.12126
Dragomir IOber IPercebois C(2017)Contract-based modeling and verification of timed safety requirements within SysMLSoftware and Systems Modeling (SoSyM)10.1007/s10270-015-0481-116:2(587-624)Online publication date: 1-May-2017
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s10270-015-0481-1
Rigby PGerman DCowen LStorey M(2014)Peer Review on Open-Source Software ProjectsACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology10.1145/259445823:4(1-33)Online publication date: 5-Sep-2014
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2594458
Misra SFernández LColomo-Palacios R(2014)A simplified model for software inspectionJournal of Software: Evolution and Process10.1002/smr.169126:12(1297-1315)Online publication date: 1-Dec-2014
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Tekinerdogan BDemirli EKruchten PKoziolek ANord R(2013)Evaluation framework for software architecture viewpoint languagesProceedings of the 9th international ACM Sigsoft conference on Quality of software architectures10.1145/2465478.2465483(89-98)Online publication date: 17-Jun-2013
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Hoffman DLu MPelton TCortina TWalker EKing LMusicant D(2011)A web-based generation and delivery system for active code readingProceedings of the 42nd ACM technical symposium on Computer science education10.1145/1953163.1953301(483-488)Online publication date: 9-Mar-2011
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Chen HPerry OKazman RChau PLyytinen KWei CYang CLin F(2009)An integrated framework for service engineeringProceedings of the 11th International Conference on Electronic Commerce10.1145/1593254.1593295(269-278)Online publication date: 12-Aug-2009
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Babar MBass LGorton I(2007)Factors influencing industrial practices of software architecture evaluationProceedings of the Quality of software architectures 3rd international conference on Software architectures, components, and applications10.5555/1784860.1784870(90-107)Online publication date: 11-Jul-2007
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Ali Babar MBass LGorton I(2007)Factors Influencing Industrial Practices of Software Architecture EvaluationThird International Conference on Quality of Software Architectures on Software Architectures, Components, and Applications - Volume 488010.1007/978-3-540-77619-2_6(90-107)Online publication date: 11-Jul-2007
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Liu SNagoya FChen YGoya MMcDermid J(2005)An automated approach to specification-based program inspectionProceedings of the 7th international conference on Formal Methods and Software Engineering10.1007/11576280_29(421-434)Online publication date: 1-Nov-2005
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