Reviews, Inspections, and Walkthroughs

October 27, 2003 · 1 min read

In a review , a work product is examined for defects by individuals other than the person who produced it.  A Work Product is any important deliverable created during the requirements, design, coding, or testing phase of software development. 

Research shows that reviews are one of the best ways to ensure quality requirements, giving you as high as a 10 to 1 return on investment.  Reviews help you to discover defects and to ensure product compliance to specifications, standards or regulations

Software Inspections are a disciplined engineering practice for detecting and correcting defects in software artifacts, and preventing their leakage into field operations. 

Software Inspections are a reasoning activity performed by practitioners playing the defined roles of Moderator, Recorder, Reviewer, Reader, and Producer. 

Moderator: Responsible for ensuring that the inspection procedures are performed through out the entire inspection process.  The responsibilities include

  • Verifying the work products readiness for inspection

  • Verifying that the entry criteria is met

  • Assembling an effective inspection team

  • Keeping the inspection meeting on track

  • Verifying that the exist criteria is met

    Recorder: The Recorder will document all defects that arise from the inspection meeting.  This documentation will include where the defects was found.  Additionally, every defect is assigned a defect category and type. 

    Reviewer: All of the Inspection Team individuals are also considered to play the Reviewer role, independent of other roles assigned.  The Inspector role is responsible for analyzing and detecting defects within the work product. 

    Reader: The reader is responsible for leading the Inspection Team through the inspection meeting by reading aloud small logical units, paraphrasing where appropriate

    Producer: The person who originally constructed the work product.  The individual that assumes the role of Producer will be ultimately responsible for updating the work product after the inspection. 

    In a Walkthrough, the producer describes the product and asks for comments from the participants.  These gatherings generally serve to inform participants about the product rather than correct it.

This article is part of the GWB Archives. Original Author: Siva Annapragada

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