How do you document and prioritize the findings from a requirements inspection?

1 Prepare the inspection report

Creating a formal inspection report is the first step in summarizing the findings from the inspection. This report should include information on the scope and objectives of the inspection, the participants and their roles, the documents and artifacts inspected, the criteria and standards used, the defects and issues detected, and any recommendations or actions proposed. The report should be clear, concise, and consistent with the format and template agreed by stakeholders and the inspection team.

2 Categorize the findings

The next step is to categorize the findings according to their type, severity, and impact. The type of finding refers to the nature of the defect or issue, such as ambiguity, inconsistency, incompleteness, incorrectness, or irrelevance. The severity of finding refers to the degree of deviation from the expected quality, such as minor, major, or critical. The impact of finding refers to the potential consequences of the defect or issue on the software functionality, performance, or usability, such as low, medium, or high.

Categorizing the findings can help you evaluate the quality of the requirements documents and prioritize the actions to address them. It can also help you communicate the findings to the stakeholders and the developers in a meaningful and measurable way.

3 Prioritize the findings

The final step is to prioritize the findings based on their importance and urgency. The importance of a finding relates to how essential it is to fix the defect or issue to meet customer needs and expectations, while the urgency of a finding pertains to how soon it needs to be fixed to avoid further delays or risks. To prioritize the findings, you can use a simple matrix. For instance, findings with high importance and high urgency should be assigned to the highest priority level as they can affect the success or failure of the software project. High importance, low urgency findings should also be assigned a high priority level as they can affect the quality or value of the software product. Meanwhile, low importance, high urgency findings should be assigned a medium priority level as they can affect the schedule or budget of the software project. Lastly, low importance, low urgency findings should be assigned a low priority level as they can affect the improvement or enhancement of the software product. Prioritizing the findings helps plan and allocate resources and efforts for fixing them, as well as monitor and track progress and status of actions taken.