Nokia Networks Inspection Process

1. Nokia Networks Inspection Process See also Notes Pages

2. Contents • Process location • Purpose • Motivation • Background • NET Inspection Process • Inspection roles • Prepare work product • Planning • Overview • Checking • Inspection meeting • Rework • Follow-up • Moderator’s responsibility • Partner’s/Subcontractor’s viewpoint

3. Purpose • NET Inspection Process describes a work product inspection. Inspection plan for the whole project is part of project documentation e.g. part of Quality Plan. The process described is applicable for inspections in different types of product development life cycles, for example in incremental product development. • The objective of an inspection is to detect defects in the work product. The purpose of this is to: • Achieve higher quality - less defects during testing & actual usage • identify and remove defects in the work product • evaluate the quality of the work product • verify that the work product meets the requirements set to it • increase the quality of the final product • Less defects later - improves probability of meeting deadlines

4. Motivation 1/4 Metrics from real NET SW projects • Inspection is an old invention, used since ~1970 • Inspection is only systematic way to find defects before testing • Some errors cannot be found by testing • Inspections find 70% of recorded defects

5. Rules, checklists, procedures Change request to source document Source documents Improvement suggestion to process prepare the work product Inspection minutes planning entry overview checking inspection meeting rework exit follow-up Draft work product Approved/ ready for approval work product Proposed work product NET Inspection Process

6. Roles Author • author of the work product Moderator • chairperson of the inspection meeting • controls the inspection process • Note! Moderators role can be divided for two persons: technical and chairman • technical: • Checking the maturity of the work product by the moderator (~5 minutes) does not reveal more than 1 fatal or medium defect per page. Secretary • keeps the minutes Inspector • try to find defects in the work product Remote inspector • provide their comments by e.g. e-mail

7. Prepare Work Product • The author of the work product: • prepares the work product according to the plans, procedures (SOPs), rules and other guidelines • keeps design meetings before actual inspection • contacts the moderator when the work product is ready for inspection • An inspection should be held only when the work product is complete. In incremental product development an inspection is held when the work product or part of it fulfills the requirements for the particular increment.

8. Planning1/3 • Note! Many of planning tasks are already planned on projects inspection plan (example Inspection Plan Template) in this phase of inspection these information will be checked and changed if needed. • Moderator: • checks the entry criteria • decides the type of the inspection • considers giving different viewpoints to participants • thinks out dividing large work product into parts. Look the work product size and check how much can be done in 2 hours. If the material is large divide the material in parts and divide between participants or arrange separate inspections for each part • can recommend proper checking rate

9. Planning2/3 It is worth of planning properly! Especially in incremental development planning need to be done carefully to avoid double work and wasting effort. • Moderator and author: • decide the participants for the inspection. The inspection team should consist of: • optimal 3-5 people. Consider carefully who are the right ones to invite – take minimum effort for maximal profit • experienced people, who have the ability to find major defects • representatives from interface areas • inexperienced people, who need the learning experience and have the ability to ask "stupid questions“ • people who are going to use the inspected work product as a source for their own work • people from relevant functions. • consider having overview meeting • The author: • sends the invitation at least two weeks before the inspection meeting • delivers the material at least one week before the meeting. If you are not able to send the material week before the inspection at least you need to know the delivery date when sending the invitation, the material delivery date have to be told in the inspection invitation • NOTE! After sending the material, editing it is denied and the version of the work product must remain the same until the inspection.

10. Planning3/3 • The invitation should describe all issues from planning: • the material to be inspected (when inspecting part(s) of the work product, the part(s) must be told in the invitation) • the material delivery date • additional material • inspection meeting date and place • participants and their roles and viewpoints • due date for comments (before meeting) • remote comments asked from experts • recommended proper checking rate • Inspector / Remote inspector: • Inform author if you are going to participate in the inspection or not so that the inspection can be postponed if needed. • Take care that you have enough time for the checking and the inspection meeting (in full inspection). Note! Good invitation saves much time for inspectors

11. Overview • An optional tutorial presented by the author • Provides background information for the participants in order to achieve better results during the checking and the actual inspection • Useful for the most complex and large work products. For example, an overview presentation may be held before inspecting the first chunk of a large work product. • New technologies make overviews and inspections more important, because of lack of experience and checklists • Note • the focus of overview meeting is not defect finding, but understanding of work product • if there are comments received in overview meeting comments could be recorded to minute. The minute is used as a base in inspection meeting. • the work product must remain the same until inspection • an overview is not an alternative to inspections. Back to planning

12. Checking1/2 • The checking phase is the most critical part of inspectionprocess. In checking, each inspector evaluates the material before the inspection and writes down their comments (possible faults). • Checking rate shouldn’t be more than 1-10 pages/hour • Note in metrics 60 LOC = 1 page, 1 test case = 1 page, 300 words = 1 page • All Inspection team members are inspectors, including the author and the moderator • Use checklists to find common defects • Verify against rules (generic rules) • It is possible to inspect from a certain viewpoint (informed in inspection invitation) • Check referenced material and other related work products • Note, how much time you spent on checking • Remote inspectors send their comments and checking time to the author

13. Checking2/2 • What to look for: • Things you don't understand: • Unclear things • Things that are ambiguous: could be interpreted in two or more ways • Things that are inconsistent with, for example: • the input sources • the SOP • the plans • Missing things, for example: • Things that the work product should contain according to the SOP or to the template, • Things that need to be known in the next process phase • Things that are wrong

14. Inspection Meeting 1/2 • The primary goal of the inspection meeting is to identify and record findings. It is a compact, narrowly focused meeting. • Selection of the secretary • Collection of checking times, note if checking rate is enough • The work product is inspected as described in inspection invitation (page by page or only modifications or only comments or by logical parts of code or procedure by procedure) • Concentrate on finding defects

15. Inspection Meeting 2/2 • Defects are recorded. Seriousness for each defect needs to be decided in the inspection meeting. • Moderator keeps the meeting focused • Action Points may be assigned • Decision of the acceptance of the work product. Moderator needs to find a decision for the meeting, even if there is some disagreement about the decision • Learning opportunities: newcomers learn by studying the material and from the issues others raise. Working practices. • Synergy: Understanding, collective decisions.

16. Rework • The author: • corrects the findings (also possible findings found during rework phase) • writes a description of the correction after the actual finding description (optional) • writes the explanation after the finding description if the finding turns out not to be a problem • marks findings as corrected • records time used to correction • updates the status of the work product (for example version 0.5-> 0.6) • delivers the work product to the person responsible for follow-up (usually moderator) • Action point owner: • makes a change request or forwards the issue to the appropriate person (for example Process Owner or Quality Manager) • informs the moderator of the status of the Action Point

17. Follow-up • The moderator (or the person nominated by moderator): • checks that the corrective actions are made • checks that the exit criteria is fulfilled • notes the time used for follow-up • approves the inspection when all defects have been closed and all exit criteria have been fulfilled • informs the approval authority of the work product that inspection has been held and approved The whole inspection team is responsible of the quality of the work product!

18. General: Should have chairing skills Courage to chair the discussion Courage to postpone the meeting if inspectors are not prepared. Courage to make decisions Ability to strive constructively for a collective decisions Controls the inspection process Planning phase: Check entry criteria Decide if an Overview is needed Select participants with author Is there need to divide the work product into parts Decide the inspection type Assign possible viewpoints Find possible checklists, rules, procedures, sources and ensure that they are available to each participants Overview: Chair overview meeting Checking phase: Make sure that material has been sent early enough and ensure that everyone does the checking Check the material Inspection meeting: Chair inspection meeting check checking times and rates assign seriousness for each finding drive for the decision In mail inspection In case of mail inspection Check comments with author Decide seriousness classes Give a decision to the inspection Follow-up Check work product Check exit criteria Check and approve the minutes Moderator’s Responsibilities See also Moderator’s checklist