Lesson plan

Software walkthrough

In software engineering, a walkthrough or walk-through is a form of software peer review "in which a designer or programmer leads members of the development team and other interested parties through a software product, and the participants ask questions and make comments about possible errors, violation of development standards, and other problems". The reviews are also performed by assessors, specialists, etc. and are suggested or mandatory as required by norms and standards. "Software product" normally refers to some kind of technical document. As indicated by the IEEE definition, this might be a software design document or program source code, but use cases, business process definitions, test case specifications, and a variety of other technical documentation may also be walked through. A walkthrough differs from software technical reviews in its openness of structure and its objective of familiarization. It differs from software inspection in its ability to suggest direct alterations to the product reviewed. It lacks a direct focus on training and process improvement, process and product measurement.

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Article summary

In software engineering, a walkthrough or walk-through is a form of software peer review "in which a designer or programmer leads members of the development team and other interested parties through a software product, and the participants ask questions and make comments about possible errors, violation of development standards, and other problems". The reviews are also performed by assessors, specialists, etc. and are suggested or mandatory as required by norms and standards. "Software product" normally refers to some kind of technical document. As indicated by the IEEE definition, this might be a software design document or program source code, but use cases, business process definitions, test case specifications, and a variety of other technical documentation may also be walked through. A walkthrough differs from software technical reviews in its openness of structure and its objective of familiarization. It differs from software inspection in its ability to suggest direct alterations to the product reviewed. It lacks a direct focus on training and process improvement, process and product measurement.

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Discussion questions

  1. Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
  2. Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
  3. If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?

Bibliography

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Key claims and bibliography are generated from the same tracked claims and sources as the article page.