Walkthrough, Inspection & Reviews
Both Walkthrough and Inspection require preparation and study by the team members, and scheduling and coordination by the team moderator. Inspection involves a step-by-step reading of the product, with each step checked against a predetermined list of criteria. These criteria include checks for historically common errors. The participants in Walkthroughs may include Walk-through leader, Recorder, Author or Team member. The participants in Inspections may include Inspection leader, Recorder, Reader, Author or Inspector.
Walkthroughs differ from inspections in that the programmer does not narrate a reading of the product by the team, but provides test data and leads the team through a manual simulation of the system. The test data is walked through the system, with intermediate results kept on a blackboard or paper. The test data should be kept simple given the constraints of human simulation. The purpose of the walkthrough is to encourage discussion, not just to complete the system simulation on the test data. The walkthrough and inspection procedures should be performed on the code produced during the construction stage. Each module should be analyzed separately and as integrated parts of the finished software.
Design reviews and audits are commonly performed as stages in software development as follows: System Requirements Review, System Design Review, Preliminary Design Review, Final Design Review, and Final Review.
Also See:
Technical Review
Importance of Review
Pair Programming Review
Types of Review Process Structures
Difference between Formal & Informal Reviews
Deciding Whether to do Formal or Informal Reviews
Software Design Reviews
Formal Review & Informal Review
Peer Review
Software Management Reviews
Test Case review
Code Review