[ska]

> is where this well-meaning process falls over in most shops

I would argue that if you have this problem, it is fundamental, and your team will never be firing on all cylinders until you fix it. Admit it is not easy if the dysfunction is well set in.

[saulpw]

Great, but then how do you fix it, how long will that take, and how do you get any work done until then?

[RoyalHenOil]

I have a job where we all check each other's work as a routine part of the process. Most of our work undergoes five official rounds of double-checking/feedback, and we often do a couple more unofficial rounds of testing just to be sure. Every round of testing always finds at least a couple of issues (often many more) and so we're all very used to getting feedback.

Testing takes time, but we factor it into our schedule.

When new people join the team, they make more mistakes than experienced people, which can be very demoralizing for them. There are a couple of things that I find helpful for this:

1, I warn them during training that they will make a lot of mistakes, but it will get better as they get practice, and I ask them to be patient with themselves. You can only learn one thing at a time, so some of the training won't click right away.

2, I tell them that even those of us who are experienced make mistakes; that's whole reason we have this feedback process. I ask them not to shy away from pointing out issues if they notice anything in anyone else's work, even if that person is much more experienced than them.

3, I make sure they see other people's mistakes before they start making their own; once they are out of the training period, their first tasks are to check other people's work, rather than do their own work. After that, they may be tasked with fixing other people's mistakes (which also helps them understand the sorts of mistakes to watch for in their own work later). Only then do they start their own work.

[wiml]

That sounds fascinatingly different from how most teams I know of operate. If you don't mind talking about it a bit more, what application domain do you work in? Do you know how this work style arose in your team?

[kridsdale3]

I hope its spacecraft design. 5 reviews!

[ska]

Incrementally is the answer to most of your concerns, but the specifics will depend a lot on context. More concretely, this is bread and butter stuff for engineering leadership. I mean that in the broad (including experienced staff) sense, not hierarchically.