Issues and Opportunities for Human Error-Based Requirements Inspections: An Exploratory Study

[Background] Software inspections are extensively used for requirements verification. Our research uses the perspective of human cognitive failures (i.e., human errors) to improve the fault detection effectiveness of traditional fault-checklist based inspections. Our previous evaluations of a formal human error based inspection technique called Error Abstraction and Inspection (EAI) have shown encouraging results, but have also highlighted a real need for improvement. [Aims and Method] The goal of conducting the controlled study presented in this paper was to identify the specific tasks of EAI that inspectors find most difficult to perform and the strategies that successful inspectors use when performing the tasks. [Results] The results highlighted specific pain points of EAI that can be addressed by improving the training and instrumentation.