Re: [AM] Code reviews preventative?

Compensatory, not preventative, might be the word that everyone is looking 
for.  Reviews & inspections compensate for low-communication environments 
where insufficient numbers of people work on the item being reviewed.  In 
high-communication, collective ownership, pairing/working with others type 
environments this mistake isn't made and therefore there isn't much value 
in compensating for it with an inspection/review.

- Scott

At 04:20 PM 2/2/2004 -0600, you wrote:

>Depends on your definition of "preventative" - the purpose of code
>inspections is to prevent defects from escaping the phase (and,
>ultimately, to the customer).
>
>Presumably pair programming similarly doesn't keep defects from being
>written, it just identifies them faster (the person typing is still
>going to type the error before the person reading can see what was
>typed). [I recognize that in some cases the pair will recognize the
>defect in discussion before typing, but that kind of incidental save is
>no more preventative than a single programmer re-reading her code before
>submitting it for testing - some defects simply don't live long enough
>to reach the metrics.]
>
>Training and tools can be preventative in the sense of keeping defects
>from occurring to begin with.  Test-first coding might help in some
>cases (if the coder is also writing the tests and learns in writing the
>test what the code has to do to pass the test).
>
>scott
>
>| From: "J. B. Rainsberger" <[email protected]>
>| 50 -0500
>| Date: Mon, 02 Feb 2004 16:47:14 -0500
>|
>| Adrian Howard wrote:
>|
>| > On Friday, January 30, 2004, at 08:41  pm, Randy Miller wrote:
>| > [snip]
>| >
>| >> Some activities, like code reviews, are
>| >> clearly preventative. They keep people from making mistakes.
>|
>| With respect, code reviews are the exact /opposite/ of preventative:
>| they are clearly post-mortem activities.
>|
>| A code review happens after the code has been written. By definition, it
>| cannot be preventative. It can only hope to reduce the likelihood of a
>| particular class of mistake /recurring/.
>|
>| Pair programming is preventative: it is a code review that occurs before
>| the code is even compiled, at a stage when the participants are actually
>| both willing and able to make changes.
>| --
>| J. B. Rainsberger,
>| Diaspar Software Services
>| http://www.diasparsoftware.com :: +1 416 791-8603
>| Let's write software that people understand
>|
>| For more information about AM, visit the Agile Modeling Home Page at 
>www.agilemodeling.com
>|
>|
>
>
>--
>scott preece
>motorola urbana design center (il67), 1800 s. oak st., champaign, il  61820
>e-mail: [email protected]       fax:    217-384-8550
>phone:  217-384-8589    cell: 217-433-6114      pager: 
>[email protected]
>
>For more information about AM, visit the Agile Modeling Home Page at 
>www.agilemodeling.com

====================================================
Scott W. Ambler
Senior Consultant, Ronin International, Inc.
www.ronin-intl.com/company/scottAmbler.html

www.agiledata.org
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For more information about AM, visit the Agile Modeling Home Page at www.agilemodeling.com
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