The Power of Code Reviews:
Building Better Software and Stronger Teams
Code reviews are essential in the software development process. They are also important because they integrate individual work into collective success.
The goal: better software and stronger teams.
Why are code reviews so crucial?
From a technical perspective, it is important to adhere to various rules. Here, we talk about principles or best practices, for example. Often, such knowledge catalogs also emerge from previous projects, so-called lessons learned. And one wants to benefit from these in future projects as well. Therefore, it is crucial to check the implementation in this regard during a review. Besides consistent results, the aim is also to identify all errors as early as possible. Perhaps the tests can also be improved.
However, the personal factor is significant in code reviews. They promote team cohesion, mutual understanding, and the assumption of responsibility for the results. Nothing is worse than building numerous small silos within a team. The project outcomes are devastating. Each implementation follows a different personal standard. Maintenance becomes unnecessarily cumbersome, and quickly helping out in another area is effectively impossible.
Who benefits from code reviews?
It starts directly with the developer, who can continuously expand their skills. At the same time, one also gains insights into various areas of the project when actively conducting code reviews.
The team gets a simple tool to deliver consistent results. Not only does this increase quality, but it also ensures a smooth onboarding process for new members.
In a commercial project, the organization ultimately benefits from all these measures. Typically, the results are significantly more stable, reliable, and less maintenance-intensive. In the end, it even indirectly leads to lower (follow-up) costs.
This process ideally also leads to more satisfied users, as they encounter significantly fewer errors.
The crazy thing is that even in a one-person team, code reviews have their justification. When you develop and fully concentrate on your work, it is absolutely normal that not everything is 100% perfect in the first version. If you take the time afterward to review your own code, you can also benefit from some of the advantages in a small personal project.
How to best integrate code reviews into your development process?
Especially during onboarding, or when a team member becomes familiar with a specific topic for the first time, mentoring sessions are an effective means. The mentor observes, can intervene immediately, and is available for questions. This avoids long research rounds and feedback loops. It also takes away a lot of uncertainty from the developer because they know that someone is immediately available to support them.
For more complex tasks, pair programming is generally a good option. Here, two developers actively work on the task. The final review is not rendered superfluous but is significantly simplified by the continuous exchange and mutual feedback.
Most will be familiar with pull/merge requests (PR/MR) as a review measure. Personally, I don’t find such a review good at all, but unfortunately, it is mostly used. For simple tasks, it works. But it always causes a hiccup in the process. Instead of being able to explain one’s approach directly in a conversation, laborious asynchronous messages are exchanged. And often, these are not short, concise, and to the point but resemble an essay.
Much more helpful in connection with PRs/MRs are automations. There are countless tools for automatic checking of code quality, adherence to rules, and security issues (e.g., the use of certain libraries). Some of these are already applied during development within the IDE and are a very good first filter.
To also highlight one’s own responsibility, checklists can be a helpful instrument to, for example, check various standard scenarios beforehand. Such as adhering to naming conventions or other defined principles and standards (if not already covered by automations).
For particularly sensitive tasks—and to promote the learning effect—group reviews can represent a significantly quality-enhancing option. A mob programming session can also be very interesting and effective for such topics.
Implementation
But before you start setting up numerous processes: Just start. Code reviews don’t need formalities to get started. Engage in exchange early and regularly. Learn from your mistakes and document decisions and measures for future reviews. Check your own results and share insights. It will always be a gain for all involved.