[Authors] Call for Papers -- Peer Reviews

[Anne Mullaney]

CALL FOR PAPERS
Cutter IT Journal
Khaled El Emam, Guest Editor

The Magic of Peer Reviews

Peer reviews, which have been around for more than two decades, 
are arguably one of the best techniques for finding bugs in 
software prior to its release. Peer reviews are believed to be 
so good, that a number of agile methods implement Extreme Peer 
Reviews in which code is constantly checked by a second developer. 
And because the code can be peer reviewed by anyone, open source 
projects are believed to have a substantial quality advantage; 
in fact, it is claimed that thousands of programmers peer review 
open source code. Many companies claim that they do peer reviews, 
although they are done with varying degrees of rigor.

In addition to their defect detection benefits, peer reviews are 
a potentially rich source of data that can be used for quality 
management and release planning. Completion of peer reviews is 
also used as a gating mechanism to track project progress. And, 
financially, peer reviews consistently achieve a high 
return-on-investment, so setting up peer reviews can be a sound 
short- and long-term investment for any project.

THE CUTTER IT JOURNAL INVITES USEFUL DEBATE, DISCUSSION 
AND ANALYSES on how peer reviews are implemented in 
different types of projects, their value, and how they can 
be optimized. Authors are encouraged to promote and defend 
their approaches to the whys (or why nots) and the hows of 
peer reviews.

TOPICS OF INTEREST MAY INCLUDE (but are certainly not limited 
to) a combination of the following:

* How peer reviews are deployed in agile and open source 
  projects, and any lessons that can be learned from these 
  deployments.

* Whether extreme (continuous) peer reviews are beneficial 
  compared with discrete peer reviews?

* Approaches to optimizing peer reviews through reading 
  techniques, team member selection, and tool support.

* Experiences conducting distributed peer reviews and the 
  technology needed to support them.

* Return-on-investment analyses of peer reviews.

* Data on peer review adoption and performance benchmarks.

* Experiences with effective methods for introducing peer 
  reviews in IT departments.

TO SUBMIT AN ARTICLE IDEA: Please respond to 
Khaled El Emam (kelemam at cutter.com), with a copy to 
itjournal at cutter.com, by October 8 and include an 
article outline/abstract.

ARTICLE DEADLINE: Articles are due on November 19.

EDITORIAL GUIDELINES: Most Cutter IT Journal articles are 
approximately 2,500-3,500 words long, plus whatever graphics 
are appropriate. If you have any other questions, please do 
not hesitate to contact CITJ's managing editor Karen Pasley 
(kpasley at cutter.com) or the Guest Editor, Khaled El Emam
(kelemam at cutter.com). Editorial guidelines are available at 
http://www.cutter.com/itjournal/edguide.html

AUDIENCE: Typical readers of Cutter IT Journal range from CIOs 
and vice presidents of software organizations to IT managers, 
directors, project leaders, and very senior technical staff. 
Most work in fairly large organizations: Fortune 500 IT shops, 
large computer vendors (IBM, DEC, HP, etc.), and government 
agencies. 48% of our readership is outside of the US (15% from 
Canada, 14% Europe, 5% Australia/NZ, 14% elsewhere). Please 
avoid introductory-level, tutorial coverage of a topic. Assume 
you're writing for someone who has been in the industry for 10 
to 20 years, is very busy, and very impatient. Assume he or she 
will be asking, "What's the point? What do I do with this 
information?" Apply the "So what?" test to everything you write.

PROMOTIONAL OPPORTUNITIES: We are pleased to offer Journal 
authors a year's complimentary subscription and 10 copies of the 
issue in which they are published. In addition, we occasionally 
pull excerpts, along with the author's bio, to include in our 
weekly Cutter Edge e-mail bulletin, which reaches another 8,000 
readers. We'd also be pleased to quote you, or passages from 
your article, in Cutter press releases. If you plan to be 
speaking at industry conferences, we can arrange to make copies 
of your article or the entire issue available for attendees of 
those speaking engagements -- furthering your own promotional 
efforts.

ABOUT CUTTER IT JOURNAL: No other journal brings together so many
cutting-edge thinkers, and lets them speak so bluntly and frankly. 
We strive to maintain the Journal's reputation as the "Harvard 
Business Review of IT." Our goal is to present well-grounded 
opinion (based on real, accountable experiences), research, and 
animated debate about each topic the Journal explores.

FEEL FREE TO FORWARD THIS CALL FOR PAPERS TO ANYONE 
WHO MIGHT HAVE AN APPROPRIATE SUBMISSION.