Question

Have you ever participated in a code walkthrough review? If you were the project manager for a software development project, how would you conduct code walkthrough reviews? How would you estimate various software measurements and metrics for a software project?

Answer 1

Before answering the above questions we must be aware of a few terms that are used in the question.

What is Code Walkthrough

Code Walkthrough is a term related to software engineering in which a software programmer or designer leads a development team or any client with the help of software and answers all the queries of all the participants and helps them understand the software product.

Yes, I have participated in several code walkthrough of various teams as well as of individual clients.

If I would be the project manager for a software development project then I would take several steps to conduct code walkthrough reviews. They are:

1. I would prepare firstly review the entire code once before starting the walkthrough as I should be aware of all the doubts that can be raised in the walkthrough from before.

2. I would set up a physical meeting or a virtual meeting by using Webex or Google Meet

3. Meeting can be formal or informal.

4. The main objective of this walkthrough would be to let all members understand the entire content of the document so that they can easily find defects in the code if any and can apply their own logic while working.

5. Each and Every participant present in the walkthrough should be energetic and concentrated in the meeting so that he may understand the code properly.

6. I will treat all participants in a very friendly way and give live examples to explain to them so that they can connect with that well.

7. A list of findings should be prepared before any walkthrough.

8. Scribe(not from participants) will be appointed so that he may note down all the issues so that it can be improved later.

Now for the next part of the question.

If I would have to estimate various software measurements and metrics for a software project I will estimate them as:

1. I would review the entire code before the walkthrough once and prepare its document so that it can be easily explained in the meeting and understandable by the participants.

2. Formal or Informal review sessions can be done there is no issue with that.

3. Software code should be well indented so that when presented in front of participants it should possess proper coding ethics.

4. As being project manager it's my responsibility to identify the skills of persons in the team and get work done with skills so that it can be done more efficiently and quickly.

5. The software development should follow the Agile concept in each and every phase so that it can be done in a fixed and given time.

6. Bugs should be fixed before delivering it to the client.

7. Unit Testing or Integrated testing should be applied so that bugs can be fixed very easily before delivery.