Reviewer Roles (RO)
Version 1.0, Dated July 2003.
Adapted from: Gilb, Tom, Graham, Dorothy, Software Inspection, Addison-Wesley, 1993.
The reviewers could be assigned a particular role, which ensures that they have a unique viewpoint. This role should be assigned with a view to their special interests and expertise.
It is important to note that “roles” encourage and permit individuals to do a particular defect-searching task better than their colleagues. It does not give them exclusive territory over that defect type, and any defect is fair game for all reviewers. Nor is the Inspection Leader limited to suggesting only one single role to one person. Multiple and overlapping roles may be assigned.
The Inspection form and the kick-off meeting should make all reviewers aware of the special roles of the other reviewers.
The important thing for the final results is that the duplication of potential defect assertions is minimized, and unique issue contributions maximized.
Examples of roles:
RO 1 (CALCULATIONS) - Concentrate on all calculations, measurements, data estimates and predictions.
RO 2 (BACKWARDS) - Concentrate on the material from the back pages first (if applicable).
RO 3 (CROSS-REFERENCES) - Concentrate on all cross-references and implied corrections.
RO 4 (FINANCIAL) - Concentrate on cost and revenue implications, estimates uncertainty, dates, quantities.
RO 5 (GRAPHICAL) - Concentrate on all graphics and symbols.
RO 6 (INTERFACES) - Concentrate on all interfaces (if applicable).
RO 7(QUALITY) - Concentrate on all aspects of quality attributes directly and indirectly (e.g. portability, performance)
RO 8 (STANDARDS) - Pay special attention to the standards used to develop the document.
RO 9 (RISKS) - Inspect document for specific risks (schedule risk)
RO 10 (SERVICE) - Concentrate on field service, maintenance, supply, installation.
RO 11 (SYSTEM) - Concentrate on the wider system implications (hardware, documentation, selling, timing of delivery
RO 12 (MAINTAINER) - Inspect from the point of view of someone who has to maintain the document
RO 13 (TESTER) - Concentrate on test considerations (testability, test requirements, order of testing and order of development for parallel testing, and so on).
RO 14 (USER) - Concentrate on the user or customer point of view.
RO 15 (SAFETY) - Concentrate on all aspects of safety attributes directly and indirectly. Safety is defined in ISO 9126-1:2001 as the capability of the software product to achieve acceptable levels of risk of harm to people, business, software, property or the environment in a specified context of use.
RO 16 (SECURITY) - Concentrate on all aspects of security attributes directly and indirectly. Security is defined in ISO 12207:1995 as the capability of the software product to protect information and data so that unauthorized persons or systems cannot read or modify them and authorized persons or systems are not denied access to them.