I worked at company full of ex-Digital Equip Guys and they had similar procedures to Google except they had design "approach" reviews, where over lunch you presented your design for a feature/function etc. to your peers. It was quite effective for finding new approaches or things you haven't thought about. I was impressed enough with the process that I often thought I'd try it if I was ever the head of an engineering dept. The company did produce some industrial strength network management code.