Course Outline

The FAGAN DEFECT-FREE PROCESS will be described. It is composed of three interdependent components:

Formal Process Definition,
Fagan Inspection Process, and
Continuous Process Improvement (Removal of Systemic defects from the work process).

Formal Process Definition
A survey will be made of class members of their work process: How well it is defined, how well it is executed, and the likely effect on the resulting work product. A practical method of designing and defining measurable and manageable processes will be described.

Fagan Inspection Process
The 7-step process of inspection is described and discussed in detail so as to impart a working knowledge before undertaking inspection case studies (in which critical skills are mastered). Inspection analysis following each case study builds the skill set needed for conducting high-efficiency inspections. Class members learn a set of factors that contribute to inspection effectiveness (i.e., how to find the maximum number of available defects), how to evaluate their own performance against them, as well as how to improve their skills. This includes moderator training.

Continuous Process Improvement
Operation-5 of the FAGAN Inspection Process identifies Systemic defects. Systemic defects are anomalies in the work process that give rise to defects in the product that was examined. Specific recommendations are made to remove each Systemic defect and in so doing Continuously Improve the Work Process.

CODE INSPECTION CASE STUDY
- real development work is done here.
Your own real product code is inspected using the 7-step FAGAN Inspection Process. This is followed by a guided self-analysis by each inspection team of its own conduct in the case study. Each team also identifies the causes of Systemic defects that it found in its own development process that gave rise to the defects found in the product. Team members then recommend specific fixes to the process to remove the Systemic defects.

For those members of the development team who do not read code, other work products, such as Test Plans/Cases, User Documentation, Project Plans or Design, can be substituted as appropriate.

REQUIREMENTS INSPECTION CASE STUDY (or High Level Design, Test Plans, User Documentation, or other work products)
- again, real development work is done here.
Real product requirement specifications, system specifications or functional specifications are carried through a similar process to that used in the code inspection case study.