Chapter 5. Reviews

A review is any activity in which a work product is distributed to reviewers who examine it and give feedback. Different work products will go through different kinds of reviews: the team may do a very thorough, technical review of a software requirements specification, while the vision and scope document will be passed around via email and have higher-level walkthroughs. (This book was reviewed by a wide range of experts including seasoned project managers, university faculty, and business executives.) This chapter covers several kinds of reviews, each of which may be appropriate for different work products and at various points during the software project.

Reviews are useful not only for finding and eliminating defects, but also for gaining consensus among the project team, securing approval from stakeholders, and aiding in professional development for team members. In all cases, the work product coming out of the review has fewer defects than it had when it was submittedeven though the author thought it was "complete" before the review. Every defect that is found during a review is a defect that someone did not have to spend time tracking down later in the project.

There are many ways that a work product can be reviewed. Each kind of review is appropriate for different audiences or kinds of work product. The purpose of all reviews is to ensure that each reviewer is satisfied that the work product is correct, and that his or her perspective is represented.

The goal of every review is to save the project team time and effort. It's much easier to fix the problems on paper, before they cause software to be built incorrectly. An effective way to make sure defects are caught early is to schedule many reviews over the course of the project to catch the defects before they become deeply embedded in the software. By reviewing each work product before it is approved, a project manager sets those checkpoints and ensures that defects are caught early, before they are repeated in later work products.