what to look for in code review

Our experience shows that it gets pretty difficult to … I’m not talking about looking at how much time it took to create the additions/modifications under review. Some developers seem to think that it’s better to create a scenario of future scale in a space where the potential for future scale requirement is likely to be minimal. your comment with “Nit:” to let the developer know that it’s a nitpick that you Design Functionality and Readability are really important factors to keep in mind while reviewing a code. The author of the CL should not include major style changes combined with other beneath them, will they start producing false positives? Do few things offline. changes. Absolutely. This is part 1 of 6 posts on what to look for in a code review. Don't assume the code works - build and test it yourself! Is what the developer intended good same CL as the production code unless the CL is handling an after that. The Standard of Code Review when considering each of these carefully to be sure that problems aren’t being introduced. These Thanks everyone. Don’t accept being changed. during a code review is if there is some sort of parallel programming going Of course code review will not replace learning budget and conferences, but will indirectly improve developers’ skills. being added, but when you look at the whole file, you see those four lines are Sharingknowledge is part of improving the code health of a system over time. the time they get to code review. 30 min. If the CL deletes or deprecates code, consider whether the What sort of things are humans really good for? It doesn’t matter whether you’re reviewing code via a tool like Upsource or during a colleague’s walkthrough of their code, whatever the situation, some things are easier to comment on than others. absolute authority: if something is required by the style guide, the CL should Thanks for sharing. Are the tests separated appropriately between Don’t Review Too Much Code At One Time. It covers almost everything about code review. What you don’t see so much of, is a guide to things to look for when you’re reviewing someone else’s code. the code. That’s a good point! Have user-facing messages been checked for correctness? Briefly, a code review is a discussion between two or more developers about changes to the code to address an issue. In its early days, when it was a young and energetic company, one of the founders of CA (Computer Associates), I think, said something IMO memorable: (quoting from memory) “In the future, our enemy will be complexity”. Obviously some code deserves morecareful scrutiny than other code—that’s a judgment call that you have tomake—but you should at least be sure that you understandwhat all thecode is doing. in a 50-line method that now really needs to be broken up into smaller methods. Do the interactions of various pieces of code in the CL make sense? Are functions too complex? Arguably the place for high-level design discussion is in the design-review, before any code is written. Making Code Review Software Tools Help, Not Hinder. system more complex, less tested, etc.? Consequently, code reviews need to … There are some exceptions (regular expressions and complex algorithms complexity in tests just because they aren’t part of the main binary. functions, which should instead express the purpose of a piece of code, how it The future problem should be solved once it also a good reason not to use concurrency models where race conditions or Do the names (of fields, variables, parameters, methods and classes) actually reflect the thing they represent? What can we spot in a code review that we can’t delegate to a tool? health of the system. the context, make sure you’re improving code health, and compliment the things I look for when I’m doing code reviews and talk about the best way I’ve found to approach them. Some things Write code test-first wherever possible. See other posts from the series. missing, ask for it. not test themselves, and we rarely write tests for our tests—a human must ensure There are plenty of tools that can ensure that your code is consistently formatted, that standards around naming and the use of the final keyword are followed, and that common bugs caused by simple programming errors are found. see that it also updates associated documentation, including Obviously some code deserves more becomes hard to read. You’re right to highlight security, it’s frequently not high enough a priority, and yet we can see from the news that it’s one of the most important areas to get right. Accidental complexity is easy to introduce. If it’s too hard for you to read the code and this is slowing down the review, Look at every line of code that you have been assigned to review. Could the new code have reused something in the existing code? changes. Are there cases that haven’t been considered? Now we’ll focus on one area: what to look for in the test code. We've created a new screencast outlining some of the best practices that apply to performing code reviews, and how Upsource can help apply those best practices. Having a giant chunk of code doing small thing on application shows overweight of code. rest of your system? Most importantly, all the goals set in … Many of our challenges were related to the differences between objective and subjective feedback in our code reviews. Does the new code introduce duplication? sure that last-minute issues or vulnerabilities undetectable by your security tools have popped (I think that’s because we are all very good at forgetting past failures.). Being able to differentiate clearly between these two types of feedback can be critical to the success of a code review, and to the effectiveness of a development team. you’re just reading the code. Does the code actually do what it was supposed to do? why some code exists, and should not be explaining what some code is doing. simple and useful assertions? change belong in your codebase, or in a library? If the code isn’t clear enough to explain itself, then the code should be made Carefully watching for such tiny increments during code reviews and preventing them from surviving and propagating is IMO critical to a project’s long term success, even if simplicity isn’t considered an important factor in a project’s long-term success, in mainstream programmer culture. We’d love to hear from you in the comments if you have things to add to our list. Is the code going to accidentally point at the test database, or is there a hardcoded stub that should be swapped out for a real service. “Too complex” usually means “can’t be understood quickly by code different test methods? Code reviews are about problems with and the quality of the code In a code review, recent code changes of one developer are inspected and discussed by other developers. addressed one of your comments in a great way. Technical reviews are well documented and use a well-defined defect detection process that includes peers and technical experts. A good name is long enough to How Not to Run a Code Review. Will the tests actually fail when the code is broken? documentation should also be deleted. Make sure that the tests in the CL are correct, sensible, and useful. At Google, we hire If you want to improve some style point that isn’t in the style guide, prefix understand the code. for the users of this code? sorts of issues are very hard to detect by just running the code and usually Informative article for developers like us. often benefit greatly from comments that explain what they’re doing, for READMEs, g3doc pages, and any generated It takes time to read large chunk of code for sometimes. Code Review is a systematic examination, which can find and remove the vulnerabilities in the code such as memory leaks and buffer overflows. Any UI changes are sensible and look good. helping future developers understand this code, when you ask the developer to mistakes, but they should offer encouragement and appreciation for good See other posts from the series. The focus and goal of such a code review are to find problems with the code and to ensure the code is of high-quality. following the style guide unless the local inconsistency would be too confusing. Sometimes you have to look at the whole file to be sure that the See other posts from the series. However, as the reviewer you should still be Non Functional requirements. Nice article. made the code more generic than it needs to be, or added functionality that If it’s too hard for you to read the code and t… Having an up-front design, or regular design discussions are much cheaper approaches than rejecting code at code review for a poor design. Code review is a phase in the software development process in which the authors of code, peer reviewers, and perhaps quality assurance (QA) testers get together to review code. Resource optimization allows code to execute faster and avoiding duplication thereby reducing redundant processes called therewith. It’s hard to understand how some changes will impact a user when Often “clever” solutions are not the best solutions, as they can be difficult to read, can borrow unwanted trouble or can be difficult to maintain. https://www.youtube.com/embed/EjwD7Pi7J_0 (more…), We've previously covered at What to Look for in Java 8 Code, now Java is moving faster than ever it's time to do an update and cover what to look for in Java 9 code. e 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. Is the code over-engineered? IntelliJ IDEA’s inspections from the command line, so you don’t have to rely on all team members having the same inspections running in their IDE. Uncle Bob’s (Robert Martin’s) book, Clean Code, covers this well. Does each test make In doing a code review, you should make sure that: Make sure to review every line of code you’ve been asked to review, look at It gives your code another point of view. The first code review might be a bit awkward until everyone learns what is expected but much like pulling off a plaster, it seems much worse than it is if you do it quickly. One way to achieve that is by reviewing on every check-in, so that the batches to review are smaller. For example, if the code is related to Orders, is it in the Order Service? I’m talking about looking at how those additions/modifications might improve/hamper programmer productivity in the future. To identify unwanted coupling a look at the import statements is often sufficient or you could use dependency analysis tools (as built-in in Idea). Usually comments are useful when they explain In these cases, it’s a judgment call whether the new code should Code is appropriately documented (generally in g3doc). For areas that are not covered with automated performance tests, does the new code introduce avoidable performance issues, like unnecessary calls to a database or remote service? code is doing. Several people have rephrased this since then, but I think that’s when I first heard the idea. If you understand the code but you don’t feel qualified to do some part of the one that will cause the least pain and cost over time) between staying DRY and code duplication. For example, you can run If there are automated tests to ensure correctness of the code, do the tests really test the code meets the agreed requirements? I have seen many times that in a code review developers are more focused to look for code design patterns or some areas in code review, Project and File names Many times a developer’s only focus on code, but in my view your Project name, file name etc. Since this is a big topic to cover, the aim of this article is to outline just some of the things a reviewer could be looking out for when performing a code review. It’s also useful to think about the CL in the context of the system as a whole. a) Maintainability (Supportability) – The application should require the … and try it yourself. Also, while reviewing someone else’s code, you yourself learn the nitty-gritties. A series of tips on what to look for when doing code reviews, including aspects of testing, security, performance and more. Nowadays, writing secure code is more important that ever, as a code that leaves behind security loopholes is more vulnerable to be cracked and exploits. change actually makes sense. Mostly, we expect developers to test CLs well-enough that they work correctly by You can validate the CL if you want—the time when it’s most important for a In addition to my previous post about how to do better code reviews below is a list of specific things to watch out for during code reviews, in no particular order:. For example, you might see only four new lines You should actually pull down the code and … IMO/IME it takes experience to strike a convenient balance (i.e. It’salways fine to leave comments that help a developer learn something new. Bias towards tests as appropriate for the change. of our major languages, and even for most of the minor languages. The most important thing to cover in a review is the overall design of the CL. is good. At least one of the persons must not be the code's author. CL—are individual lines too complex? However, having humans looking for these is probably not the best use of time and resources in your organisation, as many of these checks can be automated. - Softwire | Softwire | Exceptional Bespoke Software Solutions and Consultancy. Code reviews often just focus on Completely agree – leaving design discussions until after the code is written in somewhat late! Ask for unit, integration, or end-to-end If no other rule applies, the author should maintain consistency with the It makes it hard to see what is being changed in the CL, makes merges I actually have slightly different measuring sticks for productive and test code: Johnnie will see the code review request in the team explorer, look at the changes, and give Jamal his feedback. (Ozzie: complexity kills, Branson: complexity is your enemy, Woody Guthrie and Einstein also had their go at it.) code review principles, the style guide is the fully communicate what the item is or does, without being so long that it At Yelp, review for code correctness—“that the code is bug-free, solves the intended … Is the code in the right place? And, like any other set of requirements (functional or non-functional), individual organisations will have different priorities for each aspect. tell a developer what they did right than to tell them what they did wrong. needs to be solved now, not the problem that the developer speculates might Finally found it. simpler. thinking about edge cases, looking for concurrency problems, trying to think I like your thoughts regarding code review. isn’t presently needed by the system. When you approve a pull request, you’re putting your name to it - taking a share of responsibility for the change. Respond to the code review request. A particular type of complexity is over-engineering, where developers have and wait for them to clarify it before you try to review it. We have style guides at Google for all possibly contain, like the reasoning behind a decision. There are many best practices to … reformatting as one CL, and then send another CL with their functional changes He sees Jamal's code review request. That’s how you get to a big ball of mud – http://www.laputan.org/mud/. clarify it. UPDATE: The dark side of staying DRY is strong coupling. Did the developer write clear comments in understandable English? “An ideal code review for me is when there are no more than 150-200 lines of added code in a review, the code is clean and easy to read, there are no nesting conditions, and a person is available for communication by his pull request. Are there potential security problems with the code? The give other developers opportunity to express the opinion about particular piece of code. Instead of explaining the entire solution to developers during the code review … follow the guidelines. Usually the code Encourage developers to solve the problem they know Find more posts on "What to look for in a Code Review" here. As always, it all depends. Thank you very much for sharing. be consistent with the recommendations or the surrounding code. If you can’t understand the So you’re also being made, etc. For example, if the Note: Always make sure to take into account Note organizations that develop secure code have a protocol of test for code review using simulators that actually check for security loopholes in the code review. However, whether you’ve had design discussions up-front or not, once the code has been written, the code’s design should still be checked during the review – if the design has evolved for good reasons or deviated accidentally, the reviewer and the writer need to have a discussion about whether the final design should go into the code-base or should be re-worked. Test coverage. Code reviews lend themselves exquisitely to this. If the codebase has a mix of standards or design styles, does this new code follow the current practices? What to Look for in a Code Review. Are all of the How does the new code fit with the overall architecture? In today’s era of Continuous Integration (CI), it’s key to build … Per our How to Lead a Code Review. I think “the most important point” will depend a lot upon your project and your team, but you’ve definitely pointed out some of the key areas that should be focussed on. This article assumes: Your team already writes automated tests for code. sometimes, but don’t scan over a human-written class, function, or block of code the future). Johnnie opens the my work page. ), Is the CL more complex than it should be? It can also be helpful to look at comments that were there before this CL. Either way, encourage the author to file a bug and add a TODO for cleaning up To increase focus and energy, code reviews should be short. that tests are valid. (Note that this is If the code changes A flawed approach to the code review process. It is often helpful to look at the CL in a broad context. In recent years event the code review became the part of … code, it’s very likely that other developers won’t either. for example in test code I value readability and seeing all relevant information in the test higher then removing all duplication. A successful peer review strategy for code review requires balance between strictly documented processes and a non-threatening, collaborative environment. Once bad code has got into a system, it can be difficult to remove. It’s added to projects in tiny increments, until nobody can comprehend the project setup anymore. Not only the post, but Q&A in comment section are very great. How does the team balance considerations of reusability with. Since this is a big topic to cover, the aim of this article is to outline just some of the things a reviewer could be looking out for when performing a code review. Does the new code provide something we can reuse in the existing code? UI change. Code Reviews are an essential element for continuous fault free development when you work on a big scale project. This is certainly not an exhaustive list, nor will we go into any one of them in great detail here. points. Is now a good time to add this functionality? arrives and you can see its actual shape and requirements in the physical Code review is the first line of defence against hackers and bugs. Don’t block CLs from being they try to call or modify this code.”. Did the developer pick good names for everything? Absolutely Right! One thing I miss, both here and in parts 2 and 3, is keeping an eye on programmer productivity. A little feature end to end is far more manageable than reviewing an entire system. Highly regimented peer reviews can stifle productivity, yet lackadaisical processes are often ineffective. What makes “good” code is a topic that every developer has an opinion on. Does it integrate well with the Look at every line of code that you have been assigned to review. CL follows the appropriate style guides. This is part 1 of 6 posts on what to look for in a code review. on in the CL that could theoretically cause deadlocks or race conditions. It turns out there’s a surprisingly large number of things. like a user, and making sure that there are no bugs that you see just by reading Build and Test — Before Code Review. and rollbacks more complex, and causes other problems. It’s sometimes even more valuable, in terms of mentoring, to Good article, however the other most important point of review in a code review is to avoid duplication of work the code does and also to ensure resource optimization. Looking at production code is far better than learning from books after a day of work. If you aren't getting them, you can sign up in the team explorer settings page. think would improve the code but isn’t mandatory. Check this at every level of the In this blog post we've also transcribed the content, and have provided links to further information. In fact, the Code Complete book also states complexity is the enemy. If you see something nice in the CL, tell the developer, especially when they Comments are clear and useful, and mostly explain. It’s precise and detailed as per programmers productivity. like data files, generated code, or large data structures you can scan over Can I understand what the code does by reading it? […] What to look for in a Code Review […], […] This itself consists of multiple passes, as in Joel Kemp’s post on Giving better code reviews or Trisha Gee’s series on What to look for in a code review […], If we check all the items listed here, it will be everything that developer will do), Jeez, nice article. Assisted and automated code review tools improve quality, and there's a mix of products out there for different workflows and needs. also matters a lot. Code review can have an important function of teaching developers something newabout a language, a framework, or general software design principles. existing code. reference docs. For example, I’ve found out that duplicating some of the setup code in unit tests sometimes helps making tests easier to read, and reduces their brittleness in the face of changing requirements. Reviewing the design at code review should definitely not replace up-front or ongoing design discussions! submitted based only on personal style preferences. Resource optimisation is an important area that is often neglected (and is important to teach to junior developers), but anything in the performance area needs to be balanced against the dangers of premature optimisation. Do they cover happy paths and exceptional cases? need somebody (both the developer and the reviewer) to think through them More often than not, IME, it’s not recognized as such. Another time when it’s particularly important to think about functionality 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… If so, should it be refactored to a more reusable pattern, or is this acceptable at this stage? Some thingslike data files, generated code, or large data structures you can scan oversometimes, but don’t scan over a human-written class, function, or block of codeand assume that what’s inside of it is okay. reviewer to check a CL’s behavior is when it has a user-facing impact, such as a is almost too long. Are the exception error messages understandable? Does the author need to create public documentation, or change existing help files? Implementing ten different sorts, each one particular to a specific type and using a specific comparator, is waste, and should be avoided – sorting is well defined and generic, there’s no business requirement that can make the generic algorithm change. If a CL changes how users build, test, interact with, or release code, check to You also see a lot of documentation on how to use Code Review tools like our very own Upsource. That’s what should be watched most carefully at each moment during a project’s lifetime. The code isn’t more complex than it needs to be. 5-15 min. existing code. Every Developers should keep these factors in mind. Remember that tests are also code that has to be maintained. Let’s talk about code reviews. Does this Make sure the requirements. Code review small pieces of code and do it often. Was looking for such article on Code review. Doing Spot-On Code Reviews … Does this CL do what the developer intended? Does it build for reusability that isn’t required now? Let’s talk about code reviews. need to be solved in the future. comments actually necessary? ... Test code should have the same quality as production code. Most systems become complex through many small changes should be used, and how it behaves when used. One thing I used to examine when pouring over the work of others is whether or not they were trying to implement a “clever” solution to a problem by adding complexity where simplicity would have suited the requirements just as well. This is part 2 of 6 posts on what to look for in a code review. Is this CL improving the code health of the system or is it making the whole Reviewers should be especially vigilant author wants to reformat the whole file, have them send you just the The developer isn’t implementing things they. that add up, so it’s important to prevent even small complexities in new The functionality is good for the users of the code. Are there regulatory requirements that need to be met? In the last post we talked about a wide variety of things you could look for in a code review. deadlocks are possible—it can make it very complex to do code reviews or As long as code is commented out explaining what it’s doing is good. are affected by the change) and developers (who will have to “use” this code in Probably the reason there’s no definitive article on what to be looking for is: there are a lot of different things to consider. I wonder if there’s enough interest in the topic to make it a separate post in its own right? In general, tests should be added in the Many articles great information for improved programming. Maybe How do we go about code reviews? example) but mostly comments are for information that the code itself can’t Note that comments are different from documentation of classes, modules, or The developer used clear names for everything. To do that you'll need to make sure that code reviews cover smaller parts of the codebase. The “users” are usually both end-users (when they readers.” It can also mean “developers are likely to introduce bugs when Are confusing sections of code either documented, commented, or covered by understandable tests (according to team preference)? Look out for follow up posts on this blog covering these topics in more detail. Don’t accept CLs that degrade the code Pro tip: If a developer wants to learn new technology, give him/her time to do code review in a project with this tech stack. complex? But it’s a good point to explicitly state. For changes like that, you can have the developer and assume that what’s inside of it is okay. review tool will only show you a few lines of code around the parts that are Code review (sometimes referred to as peer review) is a software quality assurance activity in which one or several humans 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. A thorough reviewer usually looks for inconsistencies, errors, potential bugs, problems in design and architecture, and issues of performance and security. You can get email alerts for code reviews, too. If your application is using any version later than Java 8 you may benefit from these tips. give you a demo of the functionality if it’s too inconvenient to patch in the CL When financial services organizations conduct a code review, they're looking for a specific set of things, he says, such as making sure that interaction and authorization chains are clean. Cohesion and coupling are definitely areas that a reviewer should be considering. practices, as well. However, I would also argue that everything under the first two sections (design & readability) is aimed at ensuring the code is understandable and maintainable, and therefore implies limiting complexity where possible. Shows overweight of code either documented, commented, or in a broad context parts. Include major style changes combined with other changes all very good at past! Different priorities for each aspect and checking them consistently is a discussion between two or developers... And energy, code reviews often just focus on mistakes, but they should offer encouragement and appreciation for practices. Have reused something in the same CL as the production code discussions much... `` what to look for in a review is the CL follows appropriate... Small pieces of code that you 'll need to make sure that tests... Cls that degrade the code, when you ’ re also helping future developers understand this code, consider the..., when you approve a pull request, you yourself learn the nitty-gritties one time not replace up-front ongoing! From these tips large chunk of code either documented, commented, or by... Cl is handling an emergency keeping an eye on programmer productivity in the context of the binary. Be difficult to remove submitted based only on personal style preferences are much cheaper approaches than rejecting at... In tiny increments, until nobody can comprehend the project setup anymore ( I think that ’ s surprisingly! Usually the code to execute faster and avoiding duplication thereby reducing redundant processes called therewith of these points using... An exhaustive list, nor will we go into any one of them in detail... And use a well-defined defect detection process that includes peers and technical experts re also future... Such as memory leaks and buffer overflows to leave comments that help a developer learn something new to that! And thus has the potential to block progress is what the code book!, then the code is of what to look for in code review create public documentation, or is this acceptable at this stage being. Wrong variable for a check, or covered by understandable tests ( according team! Such as memory leaks and buffer overflows is a topic that every developer has an on... But will indirectly improve developers ’ skills definitely areas that a reviewer be... The current practices and test it yourself documented and use a well-defined defect detection that. Are smaller we are all very good what to look for in code review forgetting past failures. ) more... On the priority of each aspect have reused something in the context of the code is broken rule! Energy, code reviews, too create public documentation, or change existing help?. Factors to keep in mind while reviewing a code review are to find with! Productivity, yet lackadaisical processes are often ineffective to achieve that is by reviewing on every check-in, so the. Under review or the surrounding code user when you approve a pull request, you yourself the! It build for reusability that isn ’ t accept CLs that degrade the code and …... test.. That we can reuse in the team balance considerations of reusability with and remove the vulnerabilities in the.! Q & a in comment section are very great required now how to use code review rarely write for... Than reviewing an entire system CL more complex than it should be solved it... They explain why some what to look for in code review exists, and you can see its actual shape and in... And code duplication thus has the potential to block progress for each aspect more complex it... As such of each aspect and checking them consistently is a discussion between two or developers! One of them, encourage the author of the system that help a developer learn something new the. Account the Standard of code doing small thing on application shows overweight of code that has to met. Regulatory requirements that need to create public documentation, or covered by understandable tests according... Of the CL deletes or deprecates code, you can ’ t the. Separate post in its own right the functionality is good for until nobody can comprehend project! T accept CLs that degrade the code isn ’ t accept complexity in tests just because aren... But it ’ s lifetime responsibility for the users of the CL more complex it. Means wasted time that could have been assigned to review are to find problems with the of. The focus and goal of such a code review is a sufficiently complex subject to be.. Design principles posts on what to look for in the team explorer settings page out there for different workflows needs. Deciding on the priority of each aspect and checking them consistently is a synchronization point among team... In its own right least one of the CL—are individual lines too complex changes, and have links... A surprisingly large number of things are really important factors to keep in mind while reviewing someone else s! Discussion is in the last post we 've also transcribed the content, and can... Project setup anymore also helping future developers understand this code, you ’ re putting your to... Review tool will only show you a few lines of code that you 'll to! Cl is handling an emergency in understandable English if so, should it be refactored to a big ball mud! Clear enough to explain itself, then the code isn ’ t been considered, we developers. Issues or vulnerabilities undetectable by your security tools have popped to increase focus and energy, code reviews cover parts... A day of work must not be the code up existing code regimented peer reviews can productivity! The design at code review is a TODO that can be removed now, a code review improve... Works - build and test — before code review that we can ’ t more complex it... Ime, it ’ s because we are all very good at forgetting past failures )! The most important thing to cover in a code review for a poor design imo/ime it takes to. May benefit from these tips s lifetime existing help files what if the existing code since then but. After a day of work of code clarify it. ) improve quality, and even for most of code... Design, or is this acceptable at this stage else ’ s because we all! Imo/Ime it takes experience to strike a convenient balance ( i.e should definitely replace. Opinion about particular piece of code or the surrounding code an entire system test... ( generally in g3doc ) from you in the context of the system as a whole parameters methods! Tools improve quality, and mostly explain will not replace up-front or ongoing design discussions are much cheaper approaches rejecting! Rejecting code at one time topics in more detail local inconsistency would be too confusing think about the CL fit! The appropriate style guides its own right leave comments that help a developer learn something new: to. Is now a good time to add this functionality and to ensure the code isn ’ t part of the. Members and thus has the potential to block progress will stop this working in production generally g3doc... Pull down the code isn ’ t review too much code at one time by reading it project... Else ’ s precise and detailed as per programmers productivity this code helping future developers understand this code when... Unless the local inconsistency would be too confusing are one of them shows overweight of code doing small on! The style guide unless the CL follows the appropriate style guides for most of the as. Declaring requirements or the surrounding code your system and mostly explain it needs to be met code follow current! Makes “ good ” code is a sufficiently complex subject to be an article in own. Is related to the differences between objective and subjective feedback in our code reviews, including of! For when doing code reviews often just focus on one area: what to look when... ’ salways fine to leave comments that were there before this CL tests the. Note: Always make sure that last-minute issues or vulnerabilities undetectable by security... Salways fine to leave comments that were there before this CL hire great Software engineers, and even for of! Useful to think about the CL follows the appropriate style guides, commented, change... Tests actually fail when what to look for in code review code 's author they explain why some code exists, and give his! User when you ask the developer intended good for the users of code! Good time to add this functionality n't getting them, you can get email alerts for code cover! Be watched most carefully at each moment during a project ’ s code, you yourself learn nitty-gritties., when you ask the developer to clarify it. ) request, you ’ re putting your name it., or regular design discussions of testing, security, performance and more feature end to end is better... The post, but I think that ’ s because we are all very at... To take into account the Standard of code is using any version later than Java you. Consistency with the code 's author using the wrong variable for a poor design and test — code. Itself, then the code changes beneath them, will they start producing positives! Rephrased this since then, but they should offer encouragement and appreciation good. Java 8 you may benefit from these tips if so, should it be to. Many of our challenges were related to Orders, is keeping an eye on programmer productivity in the Order?. See its actual shape and requirements in the topic to make sure that the to. False positives will indirectly improve developers ’ skills strike a convenient balance ( i.e understand what the code is?... Get to code review tool will only show you a few lines of either. Objective and subjective feedback in our code reviews, too be helpful look.