Peer Review

Peer Reviews are considered an industry best-practice for detecting software defects early and learning about software. It is been taken with reference to walkthroughs and inspections made on the work product and are integral to software activities. A collection of collective knowledge, skills, and behaviors facilitates the best possible practice of Peer Reviews. The elements of Peer Reviews include the structured review process, standard of excellence product check-lists, defined roles of participants, and the forms and reports.
Software inspections plays most rigorous form of Peer Reviews and fully utilize these elements in detecting defects. Software walkthroughs draw selectively upon the elements in assisting the producer to obtain the deepest understanding of an architecture and reaching a consensus among participants. Measured results reveal that Peer Reviews produce an attractive return on investment obtained through accelerated learning and early defect detection. For best results, Peer Reviews are rolled out within an organization through a defined program of preparing a policy and procedure, training practitioners and managers, defining measurements and populating a database structure, and sustaining the roll out infrastructure.

Related Topics:

• Inspection
• walkthroughs
• Reviews