10 Must-Dos for Effective Code Reviews

Unal Patel
4 min readMay 8, 2023

--

Reviewers of code who take the time to make sure they understand a change and are clear in their notes save a lot of time and avoid mistakes that could have been avoided. They also help coders learn how to communicate better.

But not all code critics are equal. Some of them seem like very picky people who only want to point out writing mistakes and extra white space.

Code reviews are important for software workers to find bugs, make sure the style is consistent, and share knowledge. But having other engineers look over your change like it’s an open-source submission or a creative writing class can be scary.

Commenting on things like an incorrect variable name or a self that is used more than once doesn’t help improve the code. Instead, it just makes everyone more frustrated.

Linters like Prettier, Pylint, and ESLint help many current teams keep their code in good shape. They are great for finding writing problems that might go against the style rules that the team has agreed on.

But you can’t do it by being picky. It is best to get to know each other outside of code reviews. Also, who wants their coworkers to hurt their feelings?

Code reviews are supposed to be a chance to help each other, grow, and learn from mistakes. But they are often a place where bullying and confusion start.

Dan Goslen, a software worker, said that comments that make a code author feel defensive could make them less likely to take part in future pull requests. Aim for input that is helpful, not violent, and polite.

Everyone on the team should review the code, and it should be a top priority. If only one person looks over everything, it could slow down the process and stop bugs from getting into production.

Don’t make comments about personal tastes that are too picky in code reviews. Instead, pay attention to the standards and writing rules of a codebase to give the author useful feedback.

It’s important not to shoot from the hip when doing code reviews. It can be tempting to get angry when a writer doesn’t take your ideas seriously, but that’s not helpful or useful. Instead, explain why you think a change is needed and how it will help the health of the code. This will help your team keep their cool and stay on task.

The competition tested the shooters’ shooting skills, physical stamina, and ability to figure out how to solve problems.

Reviewing the code helps find bugs and mistakes before they are put into production. If you find these problems early, you’ll save time and money in the long run because you won’t have to do as much work to fix them later.

When reviewing code, it is important to give clear and straightforward comments. Don’t say things that aren’t clear and could lead to confusion. Instead, give specific examples and reasons why you think that way.

If code review feedback is too long, it can be stressful for the person who wrote the code. It can stop the team from making progress, lower confidence, and hurt the team’s atmosphere.

Don’t spend too much time on small mistakes that the author can fix on their own. This will make them dislike you and make them think they can’t trust you in the future.

The most clear reason to do code reviews is to stop bad code from going into production. However, there are other reasons to do code reviews as well. For example, it can help new workers get up to speed faster and lower the chance that team members will not understand each other.

But there is a thin line between giving useful feedback and being a stick-in-the-mud. Doing the second thing will irritate the author, which could make them less open to more comments and hurt the friendship.

Code review is a very important part of making something new. It lets people share their skills and makes software better generally.

But being picky or unwilling to give in during a code review can irritate the author and make them less open to more feedback. It’s important to pick your fights carefully.

Remember that every developer comes from a different background and has different information and beliefs. They may not know as much about the specific features that kept you busy for days.

When reviewing code, it is important to have high standards. But it’s just as important to build trust and confidence with your team.

Your team will start to dislike you if you are too picky. It is better to bring up one important problem than a bunch of small ones.

This will make the signal-to-noise ratio better and make sure that the most important problems are dealt with.

--

--

Unal Patel
Unal Patel

Written by Unal Patel

Unal Patel visits live music venues whenever possible. His preferred genres vary, but include rap and jazz.

No responses yet