3.2.1 Work Product Review Process

The review process comprises the following main activities:

Planning

• Defining the scope, which includes the purpose of the review, what documents or parts of documents to review, and the quality characteristics to be evaluated

• Estimating effort and timeframe

• Identifying review characteristics such as the review type with roles, activities, and checklists

• Selecting the people to participate in the review and allocating roles

• Defining the entry and exit criteria for more formal review types (e.g., inspections)

• Checking that entry criteria are met (for more formal review types)

Initiate review

• Distributing the work product (physically or by electronic means) and other material, such as issue log forms, checklists, and related work products

• Explaining the scope, objectives, process, roles, and work products to the participants

• Answering any questions that participants may have about the review

Individual review (i.e., individual preparation)

• Reviewing all or part of the work product

• Noting potential defects, recommendations, and questions

Issue communication and analysis

• Communicating identified potential defects (e.g., in a review meeting)

• Analyzing potential defects, assigning ownership and status to them

• Evaluating and documenting quality characteristics

• Evaluating the review findings against the exit criteria to make a review decision (reject; major changes needed; accept, possibly with minor changes)

Fixing and reporting

• Creating defect reports for those findings that require changes to a work product

• Fixing defects found (typically done by the author) in the work product reviewed

• Communicating defects to the appropriate person or team (when found in a work product related to the work product reviewed)

• Recording updated status of defects (in formal reviews), potentially including the agreement of the comment originator

• Gathering metrics (for more formal review types)

• Checking that exit criteria are met (for more formal review types)

• Accepting the work product when the exit criteria are reached

The results of a work product review vary, depending on the review type and formality, as described in section 3.2.3.