inspect

Inspect is a verb meaning to examine or view something closely in order to assess its condition, quality, or details. In everyday language it refers to the act of looking over objects, documents, or environments with attention to specific features, often as part of a formal or systematic process. The term is also used in various professional fields such as law enforcement, quality control, construction, and medical examination, where an inspection typically follows established standards and may result in a report or certification.

In software engineering, inspection denotes a disciplined, peer‑review technique for detecting defects, improving code quality, and sharing knowledge. Unlike testing, which involves executing a program, inspection focuses on the static analysis of source code, design documents, or specifications. Participants examine artifacts line by line, identify inconsistencies, and discuss potential improvements. The process is structured, often guided by checklists, and may produce a defect log and corrective actions. Inspection is a core practice in methodologies such as formal methods and the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) framework.

The term also appears as the name of a standard library module in the Python programming language. The inspect module provides utilities for retrieving information about live objects, such as functions, classes, and stack frames. It enables developers to obtain source code, documentation strings, argument signatures, and the call hierarchy at runtime, facilitating debugging, testing, and meta‑programming. Similar inspection capabilities exist in other languages and environments, reflecting the broader importance of runtime introspection in modern software development.