General information about reviews

During system development, development groups typically hold a series of reviews that are common to most development projects.

For purposes of simplicity, system describes the object under review. In actuality, the system could be a program, set of programs, or an entire database system. The number of reviews, who attends them, and their specific role in the review will differ slightly from one installation to the next. What you need to understand is the importance of the reviews and the tasks performed at them. Here is some general information about reviews:

• People attending all reviews (in addition to database administrators) include a review team and the system designer. The review team generally has no responsibility for developing the system. The review team consists of a small group of people whose purpose is to ensure continuity and objectivity from one review to the next. The system designer writes the initial functional specifications.
• At the end of each review, make a list of issues raised during the review. These issues are generally change requirements. Assign each issue to a specific person for resolution, and set a target date for resolution. If certain issues require major changes to the system, schedule other reviews until you resolve all major issues.
• If you have a data dictionary, update it at the end of each review to reflect any decisions that you made. The dictionary is an important aid in keeping information current and available especially during the first four reviews when you make design decisions.