Peer Reviews in Depth

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Peer Reviews in Depth

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course overview

Upstream inspections can eliminate up to 90 percent of a software project's defects while simultaneously producing net cost and schedule savings of 10 to 30 percent. That is why Peer Reviews are a critical component of any effort to reduce software defects or project costs and achieve the shortest possible schedule. Used skillfully, Peer Reviews may be one of the best investments your organization makes in the improvement of its software processes.

Attendees of this two-day seminar will see how Peer Reviews allow developers to share technical expertise and project knowledge, as well as improve overall development skills. They will also gain an understanding of how Peer Reviews provide software project managers with greater assurance that a software engineering process is being followed and that status tracking is fact- as opposed to wish-based.

benefits

Attendees will learn each of the different forms of peer review, how to select the most appropriate form of peer review, and how to apply that selected form of peer review.

who should attend

This seminar will be useful to lead software engineers, software managers, and team members.

the seminar includes the following topics

The Costs of Software Defects

Defect-cost increase
Inspections vs. testing
Inspection effectiveness data
ROI of inspections

Forms of Peer Review

Desk checks
Pair Programming
Walkthroughs
Formal inspections
Software previews

Desk Checks

What is a desk check?
Advantages of desk checks
Disadvantages of desk checks

Walkthroughs

What is a walkthrough?
Walkthrough process flow
Walkthrough roles
Walkthrough meetings
Meetings when participants are geographically separated
Advantages of walkthroughs
Disadvantages of walkthroughs

Inspection Fundamentals

What can be inspected
The formal inspection process
Planning and preparing for an inspection
What happens in the inspection meeting
Use of checklists
Inspection follow-up and rework
Advantages of inspections
Disadvantages of inspections

Inspection details

Relationship between preparation rate and defect-finding effectiveness
Building inspection checklists
Details of participant roles: author, moderator, scribe, inspector
Selecting the inspectors
The manager's role in a formal inspection
Differentiating between major and minor issues
Personal improvement with inspections

Inspection Pitfalls

Why peer reviews can fail and what you can do to maximize success
Inspection process failures
Team failures
Process Improvement failures
Organizational failures

Keys to Successful Inspection Meetings

Preparation keys to success
Do's and Don'ts with inspection materials
Moderator guidelines

Variations on Inspections

Perspective-based inspections
Variations in collection of inspection data
Variations in pre-inspection preparation
Meeting length options (and do you need a meeting at all?)
Kinds of moderator support
Kinds of discussion topics allowed
Paraphrasing the inspection materials during the meeting or not
Issue classification schemes, e.g. "missing/ wrong/ extra"

Formal Inspections with Data Collection

Introduction to goal-question-measure or GQM
What to measure
Why measure

Formal Inspections with Measurement-Based Improvement (aka Fagan Inspections)

Introduction to the Shewhart cycle (PDCA)
Improving the inspection process
Using inspections to Improve the software process
Pareto analysis and causal analysis
An introduction to statistical process control
Cause and effect (fishbone) diagrams

Guidelines for Successful Reviews

Establishing a peer review program
Plan the introduction of peer reviews
Define your organization's goals for peer reviews
Roger's research on innovation adoption
Which innovation adoption types exist in your organization?
Key contributors to successful adoption

available instructors

Steve Tockey, Pamela Perrott

pmi information

Quality Management

4 PDU

PMI PDU Reporting Instructions

questions?