What practice is utilized to identify defects through work product examination by peers?

The practice of identifying defects through the examination of work products by peers is best represented by peer reviews. Peer reviews involve individuals within the same organization or team reviewing the work produced by their colleagues. This collaborative auditing process is aimed at finding defects, improving the quality of the work, and ensuring that the work meets the established standards and requirements.

During a peer review, peers evaluate the work with a critical eye, providing insights based on their expertise and experience. This method not only helps in uncovering issues that might have been overlooked by the original author but also facilitates knowledge sharing and team learning.

While quality audits, inspections, and stakeholder feedback are all important practices in different contexts, they serve distinct purposes. Quality audits typically assess adherence to established processes rather than focusing specifically on defect detection in individual work products. Inspections, while similar in purpose to peer reviews, often have a more formal structure and are conducted under specific guidelines. Stakeholder feedback, on the other hand, is primarily about gathering input from users or clients regarding the product's effectiveness and usability, rather than examining work products for defects during the development process.

Thus, the essence of using peer reviews lies in the collaborative, constructive scrutiny conducted by colleagues to enhance quality and reliability in work products.