The Design review process will involve a complete review of all artifacts ranging from Requirements documentation to the Design Document to ensure that the methodology and approach to implementing the required solution is correct and necessary.

The design review will be performed by peer developers and architects depending on if the peers are comfortable and capable of validating the design and the fact that the reviewers are not the ones who came up with the design in the first place. In smaller teams, if a 'peer' is difficult to locate, it does not hurt to go out, have a cup of coffee and come back and look at your design with an open mind. Coffee, cigarettes, whatever it takes to detach yourself from the perspective that you had while you came up with the design. Alcohol has proved to be detrimental to this effort though, almost in every case.

In some cases, as deemed necessary by the design reviewers, prototyping may be required and hence requested to further validate the design. If flaws are detected, it does mean rework, but saves effort early on, rather than in the implementation phase.