(Source: Ron Jeffries in the XP-mailinglist) Well, Don't do Code Reviews, do Pair Programming. Frankly, code reviews are /so/ much worse than pair programming that a dose of them would make me fly to pair. Let's see if we can replicate my experience.

Here's one path through a network of a million decision points:

To do code reviews, everyone has to read the code beforehand, unless you're doing a walkthrough, see below. I'd ask everyone to come together physically to the review. Then I'd ask them to report truthfully how much time they spent reviewing the code. Early on, I would report truthfully that I had spent zero or very little time, in hopes of getting others to admit the truth. When they admit the truth, I'd dismiss the meeting and reschedule it.

Then, after a while, the only alternative is a walkthrough, since no one is preparing effectively for the review. So we do walkthroughs for a while. They are intensely boring, and few people stay involved. Note in your mind the people who are present but not involved. At the end of the session, say, holding your hand up, "Who else had a real problem staying engaged with this walkthrough?" If there's honesty in the room, hands will go up. Prompting may be necessary. Then: "Any ideas?"

Surely someone will think of "doing this in smaller groups or one on one". Try it. Ask the team whether "we should empower the one-on-one folks to change the code, and under what circumstances." Don't mention that this is pair programming.

Try an experiment. You're "interested in collaborative programming". Interested parties should come to the room to help. On the screen, start writing a program. Ask for help with it, get the room to pair with you. Get stuck (no need to fake this if you are me). Someone will start telling you what to do. Don't get it (no need to fake this either). Get them to come up and do it ... grabbing the chair that is accidentally beside you, while you move over.

Note that reviews often find things. Observe how many of them are resisted by the original programmer, or are "too much trouble to fix now". Build a few BVCs relating to time spent prepping, in the meetings, number of useful suggestions (by person if you can do it without problems), number of changes made in response to suggestions, ...

Code reviews are intensely painful, in my experience, and we were trained by Freedman himself. There will be no need to set them up to be perceived that way, though it will take honesty among the group to express it. After doing enough code reviews, which take way more than half the groups' time by the way, a team who has heard of pair programming should be begging to pair. About all you have to do is make sure that no one treats the review session as nap time, and that you are /early/ in recognizing the people who think it's a waste of time. Because they're right.