Archive for July 1st, 2008|Daily archive page

How to Technical Review

I am in the middle of my fourth technical review, and wonder if I am taking the best approach to technical review in general.  I want to ensure that I produce a good quality review (after all, I relied on reviewers doing the same for me and my first book).

I make several reads through a chapter, attempting to hyper-focus on a particular thing through each read.  On my first read though, I am reading what the author has to say on a topic, and looking for anything I consider to be dangerous commentary, incorrectly stated, or just plain wrong.  The second read is where I concentrate on the code itself; is it consistent throughout in form, is it correct, could it be improved?  Finally, I read through once more, and look for grammatical mistakes, typos, and incorrectly formatted text — once again ensuring that a format stays consistent throughout the book.

How does this approach compare to how others do their technical reviews?  I am looking for comments so as to refine and improve my technique.