Review Process(Peer/Walk Through/Technical Review/Inspection)

'In simple word  is meeting where people  analyze a software work product and recommend changes with objectives of improving quality .

 

Software product could be design document, System Requirement Document ,Tets plan etc. It helps in detecting ,defect early in development life cycle and reduces costs.

 

Almost always testing team is part of review meetings.

 

To understand better review process lets consider  example

•  To add a e-mail functionality in  flight reservation system ,  for which  function design document  is prepared by technical lead.
• Technical lead approaches to his  manager to initiate review process .
• Manger quickly review the document to ensure whether the document is acceptable quality  for review by other people or not ,For example, Suppose Manager find spelling mistake ,then manager ask technical lead to correct them.
• Once Corrected.
• Manager send a  meeting request to Stack holders(It's stakeholders and includes anyone related to project. Users, admins, project managers, business owners, product owners, devs etc.)with Meeting Location, Date ,Time ,Agenda & also attache document. This is called
  
  
  'Planning Stage'
  
• Next Stage is Preparation Where individual go through document find defect ,comment, question to  be ask during review  meeting.
• The Next Stage is actual review meeting ,where all participate get roll as:

                   1. Moderator: Moderator is Manager who set meeting ,agenda for meeting.

                   2. Author : Creator of document ,Under review process paly a role of author.

                   3. Scribe/recorder: Will note down all defect,suggestion,Comment.

                     

                   4. Reviewer: The task of reviewer is to communicate defect in work product, give  

                       comment, suggestion.

Finally , all comments are discussed and the scribe gives a list of Defects / Comments / Suggestions that the author needs to incorporate into his work product.

              

SR. #	Review Comment
1	Reset Button
2	Add Detail about menu
3	Ask client facility to share by social networking site

The next phase of the review, is the  re-work phase, where the author will make changes in the document ,as per the action items of  the meeting .

 

SR. #	Review Comment	Status
1	Reset Button	Done
2	Add Detail about menu	Done
3	Ask client facility to share by social networking site	Not Valid,Client does not need it.

Next is Follow -up phase , the moderator will circulate the  reworked document all review participants and ensure that all changes have been included satisfactorily. This was a generic review.

 
What are the types of review?

 

The main review types that come under the static testing are mentioned below:
1. Peer Review(Informal review) :

• Check the functionality at same level

 2.    Walkthrough: (Semi Formal Review)

• Checking Document ne level up like manager check the baseline
• It is not a formal process
• It is led by the authors
• Author guide the participants through the document according to his or her thought process to achieve a common understanding and to gather feedback.
• Useful for the people if they are not from the software discipline, who are not used to or cannot easily understand software development process.
• Is especially useful for higher level documents like requirement specification, etc.

The goals of a walkthrough:

• To present the documents both within and outside the software discipline in order to gather the information regarding the topic under documentation.
• To explain or do the knowledge transfer and evaluate the contents of the document
• To achieve a common understanding and to gather feedback.
• To examine and discuss the validity of the proposed solutions

2.    Technical review:

• It is less formal review
• It is led by the trained moderator but can also be led by a technical expert
• It is often performed as a peer review without management  participation
• Defects are found by the experts (such as architects, designers, key users) who focus on the content of the document.
• In practice, technical reviews vary from quite informal to very formal

The goals of the technical review are:

• To ensure that an early stage the technical concepts are used correctly
• To access the value of technical concepts and alternatives in the product
• To have consistency in the use and representation of technical concepts
• To inform participants about the technical content of the document

3.    Inspection (Formal Review):

• It is the most formal review type
• It is led by the trained moderators
• During inspection the documents are prepared and checked thoroughly by the reviewers before the meeting
• It involves peers to examine the product
• A separate preparation is carried out during which the product is examined and the defects are found
• The defects found are documented in a logging list or issue log
• A formal follow-up is carried out by the moderator applying exit criteria

The goals of inspection are:

• It helps the author to improve the quality of the document under inspection
• It removes defects efficiently and as early as possible
• It improve product quality
• It create common understanding by exchanging information
• It learn from defects found and prevent the occurrence of similar defects