Best practices for code review
Why is it so important?
Code reviews are a big part of the day of a software developer. And it is proved to be as effective as we think it is. It can improve the quality of the code, improve the communication inside the team, and improve the knowledge about the codebase shared. Also, the team will not have to deal with errors along the way, and the team can focus on building new things and creating new cool projects that are going to be better for the company.
So, including code reviews as a part of your daily life will improve everything. But if you want to include code reviews you want to do it effectively. You can’t spend 4 hours a day reviewing code.
In this blog post, we are going to see the best practices for code review, and save some time doing things right the first time.
First, the team must know the priorities of the project. If the team can’t spend time fixing a massive codebase, that is coded with bad standards, the team will have to choose just to work on new things or fix those things later.
The best practices for code review:
- Give constructive criticism.
Basic but important. When you’re reviewing code, you have to understand that problems happen. So be constructive with your team.
- Tools for code reviews are important.
Use code reviews tools that will help you. GitHub has a great list of them, but you can use whichever you prefer.
- Schedule your meetings.
Scheduling code reviews for the same day will help you to avoid conflicts when the meetings are scheduled.
- A clear purpose.
You need to have a clear goal when you are reviewing code, and all the team should know what you are doing and what is the goal. Everybody should set clear goals.
- Set a limit for code reviews.
Dispersion is a real thing. Code reviews need a lot of attention, so don’t overload yourself or your team with this task.
- Automation is your friend.
There are great tools to automate the code review process so you can save time and effort. Such an easy step that can help you tremendously.
- Record and report the process.
Record who is participating in the code reviews, when it happened, and which were the reasons for that code review. If you can apport as many details as you can, you will know where to start the next time.
This might be the most important tip of the blog. If you had to fix bugs, write how you proceeded and who was involved. Distribution and communication are key points of great teamwork.
In conclusion, communication, distribution, and effectiveness in the process are vital to keep a clean codebase and improve in every work session. Using the best practices for code reviews will save y ou time.
You will correct all the miscommunications and you won’t spend time doing something useless, besides the tips for how to apply the best practices for code review.
