February 23rd, 2009, 12:47 pm
It depends on what you mean by reviewed by a colleague. If it is a FO<->FO review, then I would agree with your observation. However, a FO<->Model Validation Review can be quite a different beast. If you do an internet search on "Model Validation Policies" you will see what I mean.QuoteOriginally posted by: CommodityQuantAmong front office quants, how common is it for the code to be reviewed by a colleague, either in some structured walkthrough or in a more informal setting? I have worked as a quant for two organisations. In one, there appeared to be absolutely no reviewing of the actual code. If the trading desk was happy with the results, everything was fine. In the other, whenever someone finished a coding project, another colleague was assigned to review the code.I was quite surprised to come across a large organisation where there were no coding reviews. Is my surprise naive? Is it a common view that cross-checking of complex code is unnecessary? (Please don't ask me to give names.) I'm deliberately withholding mentioning the language involved because I don't want to give clues towards the identity of the organisation but the programming was relatively complex -- I'm not talking about simple VBA routines.CommodityQuant