Typical usecases of
Instant Review for Visual Studio™

Precisely because of the physical separation, geographically distributed development teams should be in constant contact. Although there are already numerous ways of doing this, it often proves rather difficult to maintain contacts that might have been frequent at the beginning throughout a lengthy project.

Instant Review for Visual Studio™, all the development team members are linked to each other in a virtual network. Each developer can see the status of everybody else on the team and contact each person very quickly (1 click). Brief queries can be submitted via instant messaging, while Instant Review Sessions are available for more detailed discussions - with the option of adding a (source code) document for joint editing at any time.

Code reviews are an ideal method of maintaining the quality of the source text and reducing error frequency. In this process, a reviewer checks source texts for any errors, possible simplification possibilities, or any deviations from standards, and subsequently discusses the results with the developer.

Using Instant Review for Visual Studio™, these results as well as the discussions can be handled very easily on the virtual network, while working directly on the code under review. The reviewer invites the developer to a so-called Instant Review Session by clicking on a button and adds the inspected source code document. On the basis of this document, an information exchange can then take place and any improvement suggestions can be implemented immediately following the four-eyes principle.

Regular review meetings are an ideal means of exchanging information on progress, strategy or sample implementations. To ensure a common level of knowledge, all developers should ideally take part.

With Instant Review for Visual Studio™, you can hold review meetings and code walkthroughs independent of location. The involved developers can get together for an Instant Review Session - without leaving their desks - and quickly and easily create a n:n exchange from a 1:n presentation with source code documents distributed in real time.

Introducing new developers to an existing project can often be difficult and very time-consuming. A great deal of information has to be clarified on a one-to-one basis, which can take a great deal of time, especially if the team is geographically dispersed.

With Instant Review for Visual Studio™, the time required for this can be reduced substantially. Questions can be clarified from your own desk and implementation details represented directly in the relevant code. Since not only the document contents are synchronised in real time but also the Visual Element Editor features such as labels and positioning, the knowledge transfer is comparable to a face-to-face discussion in front of the same screen.

During initial and further training, close and direct contact between trainers and trainees is essential.

By establishing a virtual link between trainer and trainee via Instant Review for Visual Studio™, the trainer can monitor the trainee's output directly at any time. Simple queries can be submitted and answered directly and without great effort from the trainer's own desk, looking directly at the code.

To improve software quality, it might well make sense to use pair programming for critical components. Ideally, two developers work jointly at one computer, which is however either totally impossible or rather difficult for geographically dispersed teams.

With Instant Review for Visual Studio™, this no longer presents a problem. The possibility of working together on the same code without having to leave your desk, of swapping information and synchronising changes in real time allows pair programming to be used by geographically dispersed teams as well. The recommended rotation between the partners is also possible without any problem whatsoever.