One way to avoid this mistake is to instruct your reviewers to focus on the content of the document instead of the style and provide a copy-editor to take a last look at the documentation before it’s published. Technical review is a vital part of the documentation process, but sadly, reviewers sometimes don’t take it seriously enough. An important issue reviewers should pay attention to is that requirements documentation is most often generated from user stories and feedback. As far as audiences are concerned, deployment documentation lies somewhere between end-users and developers.
In CMMI, peer reviews are used as a principal means of verification in the Verification process area and as an objective evaluation method in the Process and Product Quality Assurance process area. The results of technical peer reviews can be reported at milestone reviews. Remember, technical documentation is only useful when it’s accurate and easy to understand, so give the documentation review process the attention it deserves. The purpose of the meeting should be clearly stated, an updated agenda provided to the attendees, and a roster that documents the attendees present with up to date contact information [email, phone number, organization]. Presenter, chairman, or observer] in the meeting should be placed with the meeting minutes.
Service Animals Must Be Under Control
Therefore, the final look and user experience for this document aren’t as important as with some other end-user-oriented documentation. The purpose of a user manual is to guide new users through the features and capabilities of a product. As such, it needs to be perfectly aligned with how a software product works. To make absolutely sure your documentation will be useful to your end-users, you’ll need testers who have zero experience with the product to follow the instructions and tell you if they found them helpful.
Technical review differs from software walkthroughs in its specific focus on the technical quality of the product reviewed. It differs from software inspection in its ability to suggest direct alterations to the product reviewed, and its lack of a direct focus on training and process improvement. However, every development and technical writing team is different, so feel free to work your own elements and company character into the process.
Build Accountability Into the Review Process
In the following sections, we’ll explain just how complex reviewing technical documents is and examine the resources and procedures needed for this highly collaborative task. Technical documentation is only useful if it’s perfectly accurate and easy to understand. However, not many types of writing need to pass such a rigorous series of checks as technical documentation. Test Readiness review is used to see if the components, sub-systems, and system are ready for verification. For each level of verification, there should be a review prior to the formal verification of the product. Technical staff are active participants in the review and evaluation of the software product.
Capture complete product knowledge from across your company and publish it with fully customizable portals. Technical review means an independent analysis of technical information or a verification/certification report. Tutorials Point is a leading Ed Tech company striving to provide the best learning material on technical and non-technical subjects.
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Formal Technical Review (FTR) is a software quality control activity performed by software engineers. A Technical review is a static white-box testing technique which is conducted to spot the defects early in the life cycle that cannot be detected by black box testing techniques. Operational Review is used to ensure that the system is ready for deployment. This review verifies that all training and support for the system is in place and that the operations & maintenance personnel are ready. Concept of Operations review ensures that the operation of the system being defined is appropriate, and addresses the needs of the stakeholders. This is a critical review, as the concept of operations will identify the operational needs, needed agreements, candidate external interfaces, and maintenance responsibilities.
Customer or user representatives may fill roles determined by the Review Leader prior to the review. Management staff may participate for the purpose of identifying issues that require management resolution. Software and hardware products in the fitness industry are a good example of this. The use of these products has health implications that need to be addressed. For example, if you wrote an installation guide, the reviewer would simply follow the steps exactly how you wrote them to install the product or feature.
Document Information
Support staff can review your documentation and tell you exactly which parts of it they predict users will have trouble with. In fact, technical writers often say that getting SMEs to review their documentation is one of the most difficult parts of their job. This stage can be a little tricky because those subject matter experts (SMEs) have other things to do (i.e. work on the product) besides reviewing your documentation so getting them to review your documentation may take some effort. At this stage, a member of the technical writing team would examine your document, check it for any logical inconsistencies or inaccuracies and then test it for themself to see if they get the desired results by following the instructions in the document.
- In addition, the purpose of FTR is to enable junior engineer to observe the analysis, design, coding and testing approach more closely.
- This chapter describes a basic meeting procedure including pre-meeting activities, conduct, and post meeting activities.
- This is especially true for reviewers whose primary job isn’t documentation and review, such as SMEs responsible for ensuring documentation is factually correct and accurate.
- In the next few subsections, let’s examine the most common mistakes technical reviewers make and arm you with strategies to avoid them.
- Actually, FTR is a class of reviews that include walkthroughs, inspections, round robin reviews and other small group technical assessments of software.
- In this activity, the number of reviews and level of formality is tailored to the size and type of the project.
Planning review verifies that plans appropriate for the project are identified. Published JEDEC documents on this website are self-service and searchable directly from the homepage by keyword or document number. These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'technical.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Related to TECHNICAL REVIEW CRITERIA
The Recorder documents anomalies, action items, decisions, and recommendations made by the review team. The term formal technical review is sometimes used to mean a software inspection. A 'Technical Review' may also refer to an acquisition lifecycle event or Design review.
Apart from being a great first step for the review process, the doc team review stage is also a great opportunity for technical writers to learn from each other and exchange some good practices. Feedback to participants the results of the meeting and provide a record of the meeting for technical review meaning their review and comments. This ensures that decisions, actions, and assignments were accurately documented. Review of decisions includes the documented acceptance; re-work with comments, and deviations and waivers to the phase products by the participants of the technical review.
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Prepare an agenda, identifying participants and their roles and distributing the agenda and background material. Reserve and inspect the meeting facilities and location to see if all needed equipment is in working order and that the facility meets the needs for the meeting. Example items to look for are space [size and shape], break rooms, rest rooms, lunch facilities, break-out rooms, climate control, lighting, noise levels, appropriate furniture and configuration, equipment, and electrical.