How to make design and code reviews work in real life? Tips?
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Hi everyone, I got tasked in my company to improve the way design reviews and code reviews are done here. Currently code reviews are not really useful, they tend to be just stamping reviews, and design reviews although mandatory are non-existent. I'm looking for opinions, tips, anything that might shed some light into how to make reviews effective, lean and interesting for the parties involved. Thanks!
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Hi everyone, I got tasked in my company to improve the way design reviews and code reviews are done here. Currently code reviews are not really useful, they tend to be just stamping reviews, and design reviews although mandatory are non-existent. I'm looking for opinions, tips, anything that might shed some light into how to make reviews effective, lean and interesting for the parties involved. Thanks!
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Hi everyone, I got tasked in my company to improve the way design reviews and code reviews are done here. Currently code reviews are not really useful, they tend to be just stamping reviews, and design reviews although mandatory are non-existent. I'm looking for opinions, tips, anything that might shed some light into how to make reviews effective, lean and interesting for the parties involved. Thanks!
Ensure that it's all done in a non-threatening, non-personal way. It's about improving the quality, performance, security and correctness of the code, not the capabilities or intelligence or whatever of the programmer.
If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader." - John Quincy Adams
You must accept one of two basic premises: Either we are alone in the universe, or we are not alone in the universe. And either way, the implications are staggering” - Wernher von Braun -
Hi everyone, I got tasked in my company to improve the way design reviews and code reviews are done here. Currently code reviews are not really useful, they tend to be just stamping reviews, and design reviews although mandatory are non-existent. I'm looking for opinions, tips, anything that might shed some light into how to make reviews effective, lean and interesting for the parties involved. Thanks!
First of all, you need to find whoever told you that tasked is a suitable word to use here. When you find this person, positively realign their paradigm with a swift punt to the nadgers.
*pre-emptive celebratory nipple tassle jiggle* - Sean Ewington
"Mind bleach! Send me mind bleach!" - Nagy Vilmos
CodeStash - Online Snippet Management | My blog | MoXAML PowerToys | Mole 2010 - debugging made easier
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Hi everyone, I got tasked in my company to improve the way design reviews and code reviews are done here. Currently code reviews are not really useful, they tend to be just stamping reviews, and design reviews although mandatory are non-existent. I'm looking for opinions, tips, anything that might shed some light into how to make reviews effective, lean and interesting for the parties involved. Thanks!
In my experience, very few people are good at doing good code reviews (and I'm not one of them) I think the best way to do code review is to do it in pair, it might take a little more time doing it, but there will be less "ping-pong" bettween the coder and the reviewer. Design reviews are a bit more complicated, but you have to do it; have the designer do a small live presentation and discuss it. BUT in all cases, you have to enforce it in your development process.
Watched code never compiles.
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First of all, you need to find whoever told you that tasked is a suitable word to use here. When you find this person, positively realign their paradigm with a swift punt to the nadgers.
*pre-emptive celebratory nipple tassle jiggle* - Sean Ewington
"Mind bleach! Send me mind bleach!" - Nagy Vilmos
CodeStash - Online Snippet Management | My blog | MoXAML PowerToys | Mole 2010 - debugging made easier
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Ensure that it's all done in a non-threatening, non-personal way. It's about improving the quality, performance, security and correctness of the code, not the capabilities or intelligence or whatever of the programmer.
If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader." - John Quincy Adams
You must accept one of two basic premises: Either we are alone in the universe, or we are not alone in the universe. And either way, the implications are staggering” - Wernher von Braun+5 :thumbsup: /ravi
My new year resolution: 2048 x 1536 Home | Articles | My .NET bits | Freeware ravib(at)ravib(dot)com
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Hi everyone, I got tasked in my company to improve the way design reviews and code reviews are done here. Currently code reviews are not really useful, they tend to be just stamping reviews, and design reviews although mandatory are non-existent. I'm looking for opinions, tips, anything that might shed some light into how to make reviews effective, lean and interesting for the parties involved. Thanks!
As Ahmed mentioned, make sure the purpose of these reviews is to review code and designs, not people. You'll likely get a lot of support if you make this abundantly clear. Also, let folks know the intent of the review is to identify loose ends, performance issues, security holes, etc., and not to critique coding style and indentation. (Asking for proper comments is fair game, though). /ravi
My new year resolution: 2048 x 1536 Home | Articles | My .NET bits | Freeware ravib(at)ravib(dot)com
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Hi everyone, I got tasked in my company to improve the way design reviews and code reviews are done here. Currently code reviews are not really useful, they tend to be just stamping reviews, and design reviews although mandatory are non-existent. I'm looking for opinions, tips, anything that might shed some light into how to make reviews effective, lean and interesting for the parties involved. Thanks!
I've only worked at one place that did code reviews. Everyone was invited to participate so it was a great way for the newer developers (me included) to get familiar with the code base and what techniques were effective (it was a custom rule-based system so ordinary techniques wouldn't work). (They were also using VB.net so having additional exposure to such code written by "experts" was a great help too.)
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Hi everyone, I got tasked in my company to improve the way design reviews and code reviews are done here. Currently code reviews are not really useful, they tend to be just stamping reviews, and design reviews although mandatory are non-existent. I'm looking for opinions, tips, anything that might shed some light into how to make reviews effective, lean and interesting for the parties involved. Thanks!
Learn from the master. Design reviews[^] Peer Reviews[^]
It was broke, so I fixed it.
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Hi everyone, I got tasked in my company to improve the way design reviews and code reviews are done here. Currently code reviews are not really useful, they tend to be just stamping reviews, and design reviews although mandatory are non-existent. I'm looking for opinions, tips, anything that might shed some light into how to make reviews effective, lean and interesting for the parties involved. Thanks!
janocho wrote:
how to make reviews effective,
1. Require at least 2 reviewers. 2. Require that each reviewer submit written comments. 3. Notify employees the yearly (or whatever period is in use) employee review will be based 40% on review comments delivered with an emphasis on a. Specific problems discovered. b. General problems discovered c. Comments intended to improve future maintenance. d. Timeliness of delivered comments. e. Rate of participation (more reviews the better.) 4. Emphasize that the failure at the 40% will impact bonus, raises and potential for promotion.
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janocho wrote:
how to make reviews effective,
1. Require at least 2 reviewers. 2. Require that each reviewer submit written comments. 3. Notify employees the yearly (or whatever period is in use) employee review will be based 40% on review comments delivered with an emphasis on a. Specific problems discovered. b. General problems discovered c. Comments intended to improve future maintenance. d. Timeliness of delivered comments. e. Rate of participation (more reviews the better.) 4. Emphasize that the failure at the 40% will impact bonus, raises and potential for promotion.
Good points there! Must make sure the reviewers have a thorough understanding of what it is they are reviewing.
"The clue train passed his station without stopping." - John Simmons / outlaw programmer
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Good points there! Must make sure the reviewers have a thorough understanding of what it is they are reviewing.
"The clue train passed his station without stopping." - John Simmons / outlaw programmer
Paul Conrad wrote:
Must make sure the reviewers have a thorough understanding of what it is they are reviewing.
That probably isn't practical and might be counter-productive. Having some reviewers that fit that would probably help. There is probably some value to having 'fresh eyes'. With developers working on different tasks it is possible that no other developer is familiar with a specific area. As mentioned in another post having non-associated developers reviewing different code increases knowledge (especially when those developers know that it they must be effective at reviewing.)
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Paul Conrad wrote:
Must make sure the reviewers have a thorough understanding of what it is they are reviewing.
That probably isn't practical and might be counter-productive. Having some reviewers that fit that would probably help. There is probably some value to having 'fresh eyes'. With developers working on different tasks it is possible that no other developer is familiar with a specific area. As mentioned in another post having non-associated developers reviewing different code increases knowledge (especially when those developers know that it they must be effective at reviewing.)
jschell wrote:
Having some reviewers that fit that would probably help.
Yes, now that I think about it more, having a basic idea of what the reviewed code does is okay.
jschell wrote:
There is probably some value to having 'fresh eyes'.
Certainly there is. "Fresh eyes" have a good chance at noticing something in the code that may be questionable that the coder keeps reading over without catching it. I'm sure this extends beyond software development as well. Editing/reviewing a manuscript, a Powerpoint Presentation ( I have done this for a client of mine that is in the marketing business and caught a few snafus for them ), etc. I found Best Kept Secrets of Peer Code Review[^] to be a nice reading for anyone interested.
"The clue train passed his station without stopping." - John Simmons / outlaw programmer