Inspections in reuse intensive software development processes

High quality is an important goal for almost all software development projects. In the context of software product lines this goal is even more important. In such development approaches, the quality of the final system is a result of the quality of its comprising components. Moreover, reuse is an inherent element of product line engineering. Thus, the quality of each single component is of highest importance. Components that are built for reuse are even more important as a defect in such a component does not only affect the quality of the component but also the overall quality of all the systems that reuse this component. Inspections are one of the most effective and efficient quality assurance techniques but this quality assurance technique has so far not been tailored to the specific characteristics of reuse intensive systems. This paper discusses challenges and potential solutions on how make efficient use of limited inspection resources in a reuse intensive development context.