Another witness of the same thing here. It worked great.
I'd also add something: "knowledge transfer" not only means that more experienced programmers teach techniques to newer ones, but also that we knew the code for all the projects in the team. In case someone leaves or is transfered to another team, it's pretty easy for other programmer to take over.
Edit: also it adds a way to control that people are working, both by the boss and peer pressure.
- Code reviews are an effective means of knowledge transfer among engineers.
- It makes engineer more conscious while writing code since the patch will be read by others and hence less likely to cut corners/put hacks.
- Since the patch should be understood by others, author needs to ensure the code and the change/commit description are well documented.
- It lets your co-workers/manager know about the amount of progress made on a task.