Volunteer Summarizes The Work

... the reviewers are SittingInaCircle and the author has become a FlyOnTheWall. At this point, the reviewers have all the information they will get before making their assessments. How can the group telegraph, to the author, that they're at least starting on the right track?

* * *

A good pattern appeals to our intuition, and the author can gauge the effectiveness of a pattern in part by how well it appeals to the intuition of those who read it.

A good pattern touches us deeply. After all the words have past, we are left with a single impression, and its feelings; a gestalt that touches our own experience and recalls deep (and sometimes inarticulate) knowledge.

Yet few review processes yield to intuition; most rely on detailed, rational arguments whose detail is sometimes irrelevant if the larger point is lost.

Most DesignReview settings dissect a design into parts and then review each part on its own terms. It's more important, with a pattern, to assess the effectiveness of the whole. Understanding the forces of the whole naturally leads a designer to a suitable implementation and other details.

Therefore:

After the AuthorReadsTheWork, ask a volunteer to summarize the work in his or her own words.

If the summary validates the author's intent, the author has a degree of confidence that the pattern is intuitive.

If the summary is off-base, the rest of the review may follow the summary and be for nought -- but the author has important information about the effectiveness of the pattern. Also, a summary captures only a single viewpoint, which the author can balance with feedback from other reviewers.

* * *

It's possible to solicit multiple summaries by asking if there are dissenting summaries after the first one is given. However, this usually leads to a degenerating discussion that defers the business of PositiveFeedbackFirst, so many moderators ask only for a single summary.

The summary provides a jumping-off point for PositiveFeedbackFirst and SuggestionsForImprovement.

NEXT: PositiveFeedbackFirst

-- JimCoplien 1996/8/26

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