How do you find a qualified, reliable technical reviewer for a programming document?

Question

I need to find a technical reviewer for a programming document.

I have looked on Craigslist and various freelancers' websites (RentACoder, Odesk, Elance, etc) but it's difficult to determine who is qualified to act as a reviewer.

The last thing I need is to have the document reviewed by someone who either doesn't know what they are talking about or is not willing to go to the trouble of reviewing the document thoroughly.

An ineffective review might be worse than no review at all since it might generate a false sense of completion.

Any tips on selecting someone qualified & reliable?

Answer 1

Have you tried asking a publisher? (O'Reilly, Manning etc)

Obviously publishers need to find technical reviewers and indeed peer reviewers for a number of topics, so they may well be able to put you in touch with someone. They'll probably suggest that you write a book for them, too.

Answer 2

The easiest way to determine if someone is qualified as a reviewer is to have them show you they can do the job:

1. Ask for a portfolio of previous work, or
2. (better) Give them a sample of your current project and ask them to do a review.

Another option is to ask your contacts for any recommendations.

I strongly advise against relying on a dead-tree (CV/Resume) for making a determination, as it will distract you from weeding out those who "have experience" but cannot do the job, or you can miss finding those who can do the job, but lack the experience.

Answer 3

You could look on SO and see if you can find some people that give answers that give you an idea that they know what they are talking about, though this could be a slow process.

I actually like BryanH's second response, let them review something non-critical and see how they do, but have an idea what it important to you.

Are you looking for someone to be able to make decisions as to what you wrote is technically valid, or do you want someone that can also check the writing and see that the grammar is correct, for example?

There are several things to look at when reviewing a document, you should be very specific about what you are looking for.