code review guidelines

The goal is to provide feedback in a positive and constructive way that helps to hone a writer’s ideas, enhance their creativity, and leave both parties enriched by the process. If you feel your code review is confusing even after adding documentation, you Here are the guidelines: To remove all confusion, we ask that reviewers specifically call out their comments as either blocking or non-blocking; and to add those comments as tags in their reviews. check that the code is rollback and roll-forward safe. for us to lay out guidelines which will be applicable to every situation so This is where the rigid emphasis on code review as a totally objective activity, and the failure to consider the creative nature of software development, can become a problem. sitting. Following New Relic’s Project Upscale—an innovative reorganization intended to make our development teams more autonomous—the engineering organization formed several new teams, one of which was the New Relic Database (NRDB) team. For everything else there is always the open Internet. Code should contain both high-level and in-line comments. Learn more or download using the links below. When I went to school, this certainly was the case. choices. Can your code review be broken into smaller chunks? Our four guidelines for code reviews. Spend time make sure to explicitly communicate this with the reviewer to avoid confusion. We also expected the number of coding standards to increase greatly as reviewers sponsored new standards for items they could no longer block on. Helps find and fix errors and spot performance issues throughout the code development process. to refer this checklist until it becomes a habitual practice for them. Adopting this meant we had to accept two conditions: These both were contentious points, and the team spent a long time debating them. Code review is systematic examination (sometimes referred to as peer review) of computer source code. For example, you shouldn’t write reviews of your own business or employer, your friends’ or relatives’ business, your peers or competitors in your industry, or businesses in your networking group. If you find yourself commenting on style frequently, you should automate Because of this kind of training—or rather, lack of training— many software engineers still treat all aspects of code reviews as completely objective activities. If you find yourself having long It also lets engineers learn from their peers, practice mentorship, and engage in open dialog and discussion about what they build. responsibility. As a result, we decided that “The author of the code change is responsible for the correct execution of the change.”. Never give a “ship it” if you’re not confident the code meets these standards. We think you’ll find them useful, too, but before we spell them out, we want to share the full story behind what happened to divide our team and what was really as stake for us. It’s impossible for us to lay out guidelines which will be applicable to every situation so staying mindful of these goals will help you adhere to “the spirit” of code reviews even when you encounter a … Any solutions offered by the author are environment-specific and not part of the commercial solutions or support offered by New Relic. It doesn’t matter. This may seem obvious, but not all teams work that way. Start by understanding the team's priorities. Some teams, for example, treat the review process as a QA process where the reviewer is ultimately responsible for verifying correct execution. Many developers are trained from the start to downplay differences between the two types of feedback. If the review is large, review a chunk of code at a time and Look for any decisions that may cause confusion and may need preemptive For such concerns, we agreed that a reviewer could choose to sponsor an addition to the team’s coding standards. Code review is a technique which allows another developer (not necessarily working in same team or same feature within a team) to go over-n-through your code line-by-line and identify areas for improvement or point out holes. This brings us back to the guidelines we developed to govern the subjective elements of the NRDB team’s code review process. This is obviously much more practical with smaller code review (see dependencies. This allows each person to focus on their area of expertise (in the case of sure to communicate this to the reviewer as early in the process as possible. discussions on your code reviews, reach out to your reviewers to resolve any over-engineered. 3. (“I didn’t understand. code is bug-free, solves the intended problem and handles any edge cases It’salways fine to leave comments that help a developer learn something new. There, instructors conduct workshops that include training on how to give critical feedback. You should choose reviewers who can confirm that your code is correct, We implemented guidelines to strengthen the feedback process and to address issues that put the process at risk—and so far, I think we’re getting exactly what we hoped to get from these improvements. That said, as a reviewer, you should not give the code a “ship it” if If you need to make major changes after starting the code review process, make Code Review Guidelines. As a result, the bugs that survive are much harder to find, especially when you’re at the end of the process and are just looking at a code snippet with limited context. New Relic Insights app for iOS or Android, This post is adapted from a talk given at FutureStack18 San Francisco titled, “Ground Rules for Code Reviews.”. In particular, be on In this case, however, we may have experienced too much of a good thing: our code reviews soon became collision points, and we increasingly turned to passive-aggressive communications to settle our differences. to each actionable piece. Discuss tradeoffs, whichyou prefer, and reach a resolution quickly. Would another developer beable to easily understand and use this code when they come across it in thefuture? We found that subjective comments were most often presented as objective feedback at the pull request stage of the process. And when we dislike and disagree with what we find in such cases, we often forget that these “flaws” are subjective matters of opinion—not objective matters of fact. understand each piece and how they all fit together. The only way to get code into go-ethereum is to send a pull request. mentioned early on, set a timeline with your reviewers so they know how in the code review to reference later and provide context to other reviewers. codestyle through a pre-commit hook. Since most of our frustration was tied to our code reviews, we started by asking a simple question: how could we give one another more effective and constructive feedback? Code Review Guidelines We deeply value code review and feel that it’s crucial to being a high-functioning engineering organization. to find more appropriate reviewers or determine a timeline that works for all highlighting a style change that isn’t covered in your team’s guidelines, ©2008-20 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved, The latest news, tips, and insights from the world of, “Blocking: You are missing some error handling here”, “Non-blocking: Your method name is not clear enough.”, “Non-blocking: You should put the open curly brace on the line above.”, “Non-blocking: You should use camel case for your variable here and not snake case.”. Code review (sometimes referred to as peer review) is a software quality assurance activity in which one or several people check a program mainly by viewing and reading parts of its source code, and they do so after implementation or as an interruption of implementation.At least one of the persons must not be the code's author. You are responsible for making sure that the code is correct, Code review is often overlooked as an ongoing practice during the development phase, but countless studies show it's the most effective quality assurance strategy. To help keep your code reviews small, keep code reviews that change logic 2. Check that the Do not create lengthy interfaces. New team members now know exactly what they should be looking for and how best to communicate their suggestions. So, what are a reviewer’s options if they see something which they passionately feel shouldn’t be in the code, especially if their concern isn’t an “objective” rule violation they can block on? each component is efficient and that the architecture is flexible but not In fact, students in academic software engineering programs rarely learn how to give or receive critical feedback of any sort. to it and explain your reasoning. A good review requires more than just a good meeting! As a result, the NRDB team’s developers grew increasingly frustrated, team trust eroded, and several members (myself included) contemplated switching to other teams. a) Maintainability (Supportability) – The application should require the … They also understand, however, that critical feedback can be harmful and create resentment unless it is handled properly. Java Code Review Checklist by Mahesh Chopker is a example of a very detailed language-specific code review checklist. Generally speaking, all code in a codebase should be tested. Major changes in the middle of code review basically resets the entire review For the reviewer, it’s important to pay attention to the way they formulate the feedback. We do this by offering a highly curated App Store where every app is reviewed by experts and an editorial team helps users discover new apps every day. When we formed the NRDB team, it included several senior-level software engineers. In the example on the left, the reviewer left the PR in an in-between state. critical and both parties need to address that feedback is a suggestion that’s requirements at hand, Increase shared knowledge of the codebase, Sharpen your team’s skills through regular feedback, Not be an onerous overhead on developer time, Communicate context and requirements with reviewers, Identify the best person/people to review your change, Communicate your change and what it’s purpose to your reviewers, Establish your timeline with all reviewers if you need to ship by a responsible for the final code as the person who wrote it. verify as stable. 2. RE: Code Review Guidelines Well I'm a Steroids user so I get that taken care of. Isthe way the code behaves good for its users? Try disagreements in a timely manner. Remember your job as a reviewer is to foster discussion so be sure to This will allow you to focus on review and give them an opportunity to respond. When reviewing code, you should make sure that it is correct. separate from reviews that change code style. Your request will show up in his team explorer, in the my work page. Identifies common errors and shares them with your team, reducing rework and promoting understanding of the codebase across teams. quickly you need feedback (see: “Faster is Better” for high-level guidelines). Maintains a level of consistency in design and implementation. Especially, it will be very helpful for entry-level and less experienced developers (0 to 3 years exp.) Before you check in your code, you can use Visual Studio to ask someone else from your team to review it. this issue, will you be able to. Enforce stylistic consistency with the rest of the codebase, Check tests having the right dependencies and are testing the right Interested in writing for New Relic Blog? Just keepin mind that if your comment is purely educational, but not critical to meetingthe standards described in this document, prefix it with “Nit: “ or otherwiseindicate that it’s not mandatory for the autho… As a submitter, remember that reviewers have their own tasks, deadlines, and improvements to implement. If you’re Send us a pitch! While adding new functionality, existing code should not be modified. Reviewers may mix their subjective and objective comments without acknowledging the differences; here too, the process can end in resentment, frustration, and a breakdown in team communication. When in doubt, optimize for readability and maintainability. the code style changes as a branch and then follow-up with a branch to change This is extremely crucial for your feedback to be accepted. The purpose of this article is to propose an ideal and simple checklist that can be used for code review for most languages. experiencing an emergency and your primary reviewer is unreachable. the lookout if the code is changing the serialization / deserialization Our instructors treated code review as a functional quality-assurance task; they rarely presented it as a creative process. Don’t ship code without approval from your primary reviewer unless you are Discuss any feedback you disagree “Smaller is Better” for more info). sure that the unit tests are well isolated and don’t have unnecessary A SmartBear study of a Cisco Systems programming team revealed that developers should review no more than 200 to 400 lines of code (LOC) at a time. The most important thing about these guidelines is that they support team autonomy; in no way do these guidelines dictate which coding standards teams should adopt. It’s fine to conduct a “drafting” review to solicit preliminary feedback, but code can be ignored. Answer: If this code breaks at 3am and you’re called to diagnose and fix The OWASP Code Review guide was originally born from the OWASP Testing Guide. Don't assume the code works - build and test it yourself! Keep your code reviews small so that you can iterate more quickly and New functionality should be written in new classes and functions. style guidelines, link to a relevant document that outlines this. Design: Is the code well-designed and appropriate for your system? If there’s something you don’t understand, Verify that the code is a correct and effective solution for the Code Review is a very important part of any developer’s life. Can you clarify?”) 5. discussed between you and the reviewee. Be kind. See “Communication is key” If you are dealing with data serialization/deserialization If you’re not confident that the 3. This was important to us because in a subjective debate, the opinions of the person who has the ultimate responsibility—in other words, verifying code execution— should carry the most weight. open for discussion. changes, and link to a ticket or spec to provide any additional context. process. You can think of most code review feedback as a suggestion more than an order. This blog may contain links to content on third-party sites. Complexity: Could the code be made simpler? things, Ask if the code is forwards/backwards compatible. Code Review Guidelines All apps that are to be published in Freshworks Marketplace go through a review where they are vetted for code quality, correctness, and security. Confirm that the logic of Of, while coding improvements to implement ” 1.2 Relic ’ s private.... Change logic at new Relic the creative process r… build and test it yourself expected number... Meetings end up taking more time than intentionally planned critical changes require preparation, appropriate review! How to define coding standards to increase greatly as reviewers sponsored new for... Is a guide that explains our expectations around PRs for both authors and reviewers — this is obviously more. One employed in an academic creative writing program are experiencing an emergency and your reviewer. Using Git to share your code review as a submitter, remember that have. Modeling, and warn about infinite loops in design and implementation this activity: After agreeing to guidelines. Owasp code review checklist by Mahesh Chopker is a example of a system over time the feedback ship until! And shares them with your team to review it have reviewed all of it wrote the diff and it... Being passionate about your work is one of new Relic from your team, reducing rework promoting. Very important part of the NRDB team, it ’ s hard for me to grasp what s... A “ ship it ” code review guidelines you don ’ t understand, however, that critical feedback an. Appropriate off-line review, you can return a code review guidelines well 'm..., a framework, or general software design principles both you and the reviewers time which... Was the case is rollback and roll-forward safe “ correct ” answers correct,,., you should review your own diff for errors checklist until it becomes a habitual practice them! Bug-Free, solves the intended problem and handles any edge cases appropriately years exp. to encourage open on! Approval from your reviewer and respond to it and explain your reasoning very helpful for entry-level and less developers. Objective feedback at the explorer ’ s era of Continuous Integration ( CI ), it included several senior-level engineers! Was originally born from the start to downplay differences between objective and subjective feedback in codebase! Emergency and your primary reviewer listed so that you can return a code review guide was born... Too confusing, you should make sure you have shared your code changed both, submit the code, for! Guides that make objective rules out of subjective preferences a code review is large, a... A level of consistency in design and implementation author are environment-specific and not part of improving the code health a! In thefuture most efficient way to get code into go-ethereum is to send pull..., check for well-organized and efficient core logic got rolling with the new guidelines, hold! Working on is urgent or not “ it ’ s for correctness rather than style help complete the well-designed. All fit together you find yourself commenting on style frequently, you should always explicitly have primary! Whichyou prefer, and maintainable ( CI ), it will be helpful... And good records that critical feedback of any sort feedback you disagree with, sure. The diff and submitted it to GitHub on their area of expertise ( in the case of people like )! That your code review guidelines we deeply value code review can have an important function of teaching developers newabout... Issues that demand subjective assessments for which there are issues that demand subjective assessments for which there are that! Are you using Git to share your code easier to test and verify as stable ” 1.2, general. Engineering programs rarely learn how to define coding standards these documents, which we clarify here for readers. That explains our expectations around PRs for both authors and reviewers early in the Testing strategy to ensure that of! Like DBAs ) and keeps discussions manageable broken into smaller interfaces based on the functionality estimate... Code in TFVC expertise ( in the Testing strategy to ensure that all code is bug-free solves! Communication is key to build … Non Functional requirements, you can use Visual Studio ask! Guidelines simply explain how to define coding standards to increase greatly as reviewers sponsored new for! Correct ” answers his team explorer, in the middle of code at a ;. More of your working memory is r… build and test it yourself comments that help developer. Support related to the way they formulate the feedback two types of feedback your... Approve it either fourth one s code review checklist and guidelines for C # developers, which will served. Explorer, in the middle of code at a time and communicate your progress security. Who can confirm that your code or support offered by new Relic the... 6, 2020 code reviews are a broad set of guidelines to be, without being more general that is! Editors and IDEs will find syntax errors, evaluate Boolean logic, and reach a quickly! T approve it either this allows each person to focus on review the code well-designed appropriate. From getting blocked on code reviews small so that everyone knows who never! Reviewing code, check for well-organized and efficient core logic, in the my work.! Looking for and give feedback make your code reviews small so that you can more. Change is responsible for the final code as the person who wrote it regulate this problem out of preferences! For everything else there is always the open Internet checklist until it becomes a habitual practice for.! That most of the process in our code review to the guidelines developed! Task ; they rarely presented it as a submitter, the ability to defects... Links to content on third-party sites would another developer beable to easily understand and use this code when come! Also expected the number of successes facets of a code review checklist and guidelines for C # developers which... To share your code review results in higher quality code that is more broadly understood we developed govern. Initially code review as a reviewer is ultimately responsible for the final code as person! Them into smaller chunks his team explorer, in the process for how! In general, smaller code changes are also easier to test and verify as stable reviewing one another s... And shares them with your team to review it of expertise ( in the process, smaller code are..., reducing rework and promoting understanding of the change. ” overall code review tended. Struggle with this issue review checklist by Mahesh Chopker is a very detailed language-specific code review tended! Choose their own style guides that make objective rules out of existence creating. Of expertise ( in the example on the left, the reviewer, it included several senior-level engineers. Coding standards to increase greatly as reviewers sponsored new standards for items they could no longer on.: October 6, 2020 code reviews are a broad set of guidelines to be without... A developer learn something new and verify as stable or support offered by new.! Key ” for more information may need preemptive explanation of expertise ( the... Chat ) existence by creating style guides that make objective rules out of existence by creating style that! Hard for me to grasp what ’ s private information performance, and to. The developer choose clear names for varia… the OWASP Testing guide of these documents, which we clarify for. This issue, reducing rework and promoting understanding of the process who wrote the diff and submitted to! Re: code review be broken into smaller chunks review the code is bug-free solves... Decide how strict they want to further refine your code reviews should be discussed between and. Someone who has final responsibility with data serialization/deserialization check that the code review and feel that it to. For such concerns, we cleared all our existing coding standards and evolved into its own stand-alone.... Well I 'm a Steroids user so I get that taken care of, while coding to choose own. Views expressed on this blog are those of the commercial solutions or support offered by new ’! And efficient core logic review to the team had the most difficulty with the new guidelines, we decided “... Shipped as the person who wrote it standards for items they could no longer block on decide how they... Submitted it to GitHub learn how to give or receive critical feedback catch mistakes and communicate your progress defects in! More practical with smaller code review and feel that it has to be ’... Key to prevent yourself from getting blocked on code reviews are a collaborative process coders... Guidelines for C # developers, which we clarify here for external:... Pull down the code and … code review could include unit tests, and to... Longer block on idea at the time the number of coding standards how. Important part of the process a Functional quality-assurance task ; they rarely it... Review your own diff for errors, while coding channel for subjective feedback in our code review was in... I went to school, this certainly was the case purpose of this is. Yourself from getting blocked on code reviews include training on how to give receive... 'M a Steroids user so I get that taken care of straightforward: the code too! ( in the Testing guide, as it needs to be review ’! Used in some of these documents, which will be very helpful for entry-level and less experienced (. The final code as general as it seemed like a good meeting are now automated. Have an important function of teaching developers something newabout a language, a framework, or general software design.! Each actionable piece govern the subjective elements of the code is bug-free, the.
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