You either love code reviews or hate them. If you are in the first category, you may have been the victim of poor code reviews or experienced unpredictably high latencies in your workflow.
It’s a shame because a good code review culture benefits a company and its final product. This guide will show you how to be a better coder and provide a list of resources every developer should bookmark.
If you want to learn more about code reviews or like watching videos, check out the course Code Reviews: best practices. It covers the basics of code reviews and how to automate code analysis, make effective pull requests, and handle difficult code review situations.
What is a Code Review
Code review manually checks and examines source code by someone other than the code’s original author. For a thorough analysis, this can be done by several people or by the same person multiple times. Some parts of this process may also be automated.
Reviewers consider several factors, including style, functionality, and complexity, when reviewing code. They also look at naming and testing. These reviews can be done in person or asynchronously.
What is the purpose of a code review
The most crucial benefit of preventing destructive code from entering production is to ensure it doesn’t. There are many other benefits, including knowledge sharing, improved security, and a greater sense of collaboration and teamwork. It can also help organizations achieve greater standardization.
You may need to include more regarding quality code
You’ve been staring at the same line of code for a long time. You may not want to look at it ever again. It isn’t easy to remain objective at this stage, as you only focus on your intentions and not the actual code.
A pair of fresh, unbiased eyes can be invaluable. You can relax knowing that someone else is spotting any bugs in the code while you make some much-needed coffee (or even tea). Bugs can also be addressed earlier in the software lifecycle rather than fixing them after the code is released.
Teamwork and knowledge sharing (also underrated)
It may be tempting not to share your code with anyone out of shame, but a code review helps you and the other person learn.
The code reviewer gets to examine the style and source code.
The authors of the code can benefit from the feedback and put it into action immediately.
Communication and understanding between the parties are improved when silos are broken down.
This process allows code authors and reviews to brainstorm ideas, develop workflows, and discuss objectives.
Security (Not only the feeling that you are secure after a code check)
Secure code reviews can help identify security flaws and vulnerabilities in a manual or automatic process. This helps avoid late-stage bugs and improves the code’s maintainability and quality. Code reviews also help to avoid technical debt.
What is the difference between a code review and a code checker
Software is used to analyze the source code by code checkers. Some organizations use code checkers to reduce human error and speed up the development process. This software performs static analysis on the source code to check for bugs, logic mistakes, style, documentation, and syntax.
What Should the Look of a Good Code Review Be
You might be thinking, “That’s great, but how can I ensure I conduct a code review properly?” Be sure to identify the purpose of your session before reviewing an author’s code. Follow these best practices.
Create a Checklist to Review
You can review code in several different areas, such as design, security and maintainability. Create a check list before you begin your review to help keep focus.
What is the purpose of this code?
Does the code work as it should?
Can this source code possibly be simplified? Is there any redundant code?
What are the names and descriptions?
Does the name follow our conventions?
How quickly can I distinguish between functions, classes and methods?
Is the source code encapsulated and modularized?
Does it depend on an old code or functionality?
Is it a security risk? What vulnerabilities could this code potentially expose?
Is there any documentation required for the code?
Is it coded and styled correctly?
You may wish to add to your checklist as you continue to review. This will help you to remember what you have learned.
Include benchmarks and metrics
Prior to the code review, it can be useful for software development teams select metrics or benchmarks . These metrics can be tracked to determine the impact of code reviews on quality. The metrics also provide teams with objective measures around which to structure code review. Three metrics can be useful to start your review process.
Review Session Length:The duration of each code-review session will depend on the reviewer, and the source code. Keep track of the time you spend per session in order to determine the average time your team spends. If you have particularly long sessions, it may be that there are readability issues at play. If the session is shorter than average, it could mean that the reviewer has to focus more (or just be reviewing high-quality code! ).
Defect Density:To determine the defect density, multiply the number of defects times the thousands of lines in the code. This metric can be used to assess the quality of code and help allocate resources for projects that require more support.
Reaction time:This is a useful metric to encourage collaboration in projects that involve multiple developers. Chart how long it takes for a reviewer’s response to a comment that is addressed to them. A team with a shorter reaction time is more likely to be collaborative and responsive.
For greater visibility of the pull request workflow, you can use GitPrime’s Code Review and Collaboration.