Reviews and inspections do work: however there are more stories of failure than of success with reviews and particularly inspections causing division and
confrontation and then being abandoned.
If the introduction of the review process focuses on the benefits to those involved and
how to make the process both enjoyable and constructive then success follows easily.
The review process has been measured as costing less than 3% of the project budget
but being capable of removing 70% of the defects. This is a test technique that must
not be ignored.
The review process is almost totally dependent on understanding interpersonal
communications and the need to focus on the product not the person.
This course concentrates on making the review, in whatever form it is used, an iterative,
error-removing, deliverable enhancing process.
Objectives:
- To provide insight and practical knowledge of the review process
- To give a background to the historical development of the inspection and review used within IT projects
- To enable delegates to implement effective and non-confrontational reviews
Key points
Introduction: The history of inspections, walkthroughs and reviews; the purpose of reviews; elements
in the review process, especially the formal review; formal reviews and inspections; key
points of other review methods; the role of the moderator in the review and inspection
processes; the quality assurance process; causal analysis; the importance of statistics; the
review as an iterative process; the follow-up
Roles and responsibilities: The role of the moderator; moderator tasks; making sure the review is effective; the
preparation required; estimating the time allocation; the administration; running the
review; what needs to be done; recording issues; closing the review; follow-up work
Implementing reviews:
Review as a quality assurance process; ways of handling problems; getting all to
contribute; recording issues; assigning actions
Conclusions: Lessons learnt; making reviews a success from the start
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