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“I don’t like people criticizing my work.”
Many people are uncomfortable putting their work up for review. They are unsure of
their documents, and they are not used to having people point out their mistakes. It is
very important to recognize this, because it often falls on the project manager to help the
team members get comfortable with having their work put under a magnifying glass.
When this objection is raised, the project manager can point out that everyone makes mis-
takes, and that usually those mistakes are not the fault of the author. Frequently, when
there is a problem in a document, it is because the author did not have enough informa-
tion: bringing in the rest of the team can fill in those gaps.

The project manager can also point out that while it may be uncomfortable to have mis-
takes pointed out during the inspection, it’s much more uncomfortable when those mis-
takes are left in the document. The author of a use case document may feel bad
momentarily when defects are pointed out and corrected during an inspection meeting.
But if he feels bad then, he will feel terrible if those defects are not caught until after the
team spends months designing, programming, and testing the software, only to discover a
“bug” that turns out to be a problem in his use case document. Instead of feeling bad
when the inspection team points out problems, he should feel relieved that they were
caught before they could cause project delays.
Defects should be discussed in terms of what is best for the work product or the project,
not as criticisms of the author. It is very important that the moderator be extremely strict
during the inspection meetings toward people who make rude personal comments. The
moderator should enforce professionalism, and should ensure that every inspection meet-
ing is conducted in a positive manner.

“I built it, and only I can say when it’s done.”
Some people are very protective of their work, and simply don’t want other people to crit-
icize it. In these cases, the author feels that she is the expert, and feels that there’s nobody
else in the organization who knows more about this subject than she does. Be very careful
when confronting her—this is an emotionally charged situation, and it’s very easy to turn

this person off permanently. It is important for the project manager to be nonconfronta-
tional. The project manager should work to influence this person, not to force her into a
situation she doesn’t want to participate in.

The best argument in this situation is to show her that the inspection is a tool that is there
for her to use. It is like a spellcheck in a word processor: the document is always better
after the spellcheck.
Nobody, no matter how good he is at his job, can deliver a perfect document. It is impossi-
ble to know exactly what’s in the heads of the intended readers. There is no way to
include the entire context in a document. There will always be technical or organizational
concepts that would take pages and pages to explain, but that everyone is familiar with.

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