Reviewed: January 2014

I bought this for much the same reasons as Software Inspection. I also quite liked two books by the author (namely Software Requirements and More About Software Requirements). Of the two books this is the slighter tome. Due to its more recent publishing date, it was possible to include web links to ‘extras’ like report templates.

Inspection isn’t the only method covered, covering the gamut from formal inspection down to desk checking and ad-hoc checks. Having said that, inspection does get the lion’s share of the coverage. The tone of the writing is also far more relaxed, being less prescriptive and more informative. I felt that my thinking was very much on the same wavelength, in particular chapter 1 (quality motivation for using reviews) and chapter 9 (measuring the results, and in particular the little bit on measurement dysfunction illustrated with a Dilbert cartoon).

One thing that was mildly annoying was the chapter introductions that use presumably fictional little scenes to illustrate the point of the coming chapter. That might just be me, as I’ve never liked this sort of artifice in non-fiction.