Beginning with the description of an historical and embarrassing failure in the history of NASA’s exploration of Mars, caused primarily by insufficient Peer Review implementation, Rob Stites will introduce attendees to the principles, practice, preparation, and power of the peer review process. Real data from process improvement examples of the power of peer review will be illustrated for both small and large projects. The presentation will conclude with the presenter’s lessons learned, best practices, and tool recommendations for effective peer reviews based on the presenter’s 18 years of experience with guiding CMMI Maturity Level 3 projects.