code review guidelines
This brings us back to the guidelines we developed to govern the subjective elements of the NRDB team’s code review process. Answer: If this code breaks at 3am and you’re called to diagnose and fix Identifies common errors and shares them with your team, reducing rework and promoting understanding of the codebase across teams. communicate your progress. well-architected, and conforms to conventions within a reasonable timeframe. Those pull requests need to be reviewed by someone. 1. It’s fine to disagree with a reviewer’s feedback but you need to explain why Please join us exclusively at the Explorer’s Hub (discuss.newrelic.com) for questions and support related to this blog post. to do this through the eyes of someone who has never seen the code before. Be kind. 3. This was a highly skilled and very passionate group of developers reviewing one another’s pull requests. with, Make sure you completely understand the code, Check for well-organized and efficient core logic. responsible for the final code as the person who wrote it. 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 … “Smaller is Better” for more info). Functionality: Does the code behave as the author likely intended? for us to lay out guidelines which will be applicable to every situation so This is to ensure that most of the General coding guidelines have been taken care of, while coding. Code review is systematic examination (sometimes referred to as peer review) of computer source code. Can your code review be broken into smaller chunks? If you need to make major changes after starting the code review process, make Start by understanding the team's priorities. people like DBAs) and keeps discussions manageable. It’s impossible As a submitter, remember that reviewers have their own tasks, deadlines, and improvements to implement. you’re unsatisfied with the mitigation of an open issue. quickly you need feedback (see: “Faster is Better” for high-level guidelines). Non Functional requirements. Avoid selective ownersh… If you’re When in doubt, optimize for readability and maintainability. 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. You’ll then want to communicate with your reviewer when your review has left code meets these standards, ask a teammate to help complete the code review. In the example on the right, the reviewer made a highly subjective request, and the author just made the change, but from their tone you can kind of guess that they didn’t appreciate the feedback. 5. This may seem obvious, but not all teams work that way. Code Review GuidelinesWhat is a code Review?A code review is a detailed review of code and the end of the feature implementation or at logicalintervals for validating the design and implementation of features/patches.Why Reviews are important? Code review guidelines 1. Never ship code until you have reviewed all of it. The brain can only effectively process so much information at a time; beyond 400 LOC, the ability to find defects diminishes. We also noticed that when a reviewer did write a non-blocking comment asking for a change, the author typically made the requested change or came up with a compromise—even though the author had the option of ignoring the comment. To ask for a code review, make sure you have shared your code in TFVC. New team members now know exactly what they should be looking for and how best to communicate their suggestions. discussions on your code reviews, reach out to your reviewers to resolve any If you need to make major changes after submitting a review, you may This But once we got rolling with the new guidelines, we saw a number of successes. 4. clearly define what section(s) each reviewer is responsible for and who will Never give a “ship it” if you’re not confident the code meets these standards. Check that the We concluded that since reviewers felt that authors were taking into consideration their subjective feedback, they did not feel as motivated to “convert” them to objective constraints based on their point of view. Enforce stylistic consistency with the rest of the codebase, Check tests having the right dependencies and are testing the right Many facets of a code review, however, are not straightforward. This was important to us because in a subjective debate, the opinions of the person who has … Would another developer beable to easily understand and use this code when they come across it in thefuture? If you find yourself commenting on style frequently, you should automate By providing such links, New Relic does not adopt, guarantee, approve or endorse the information, views or products available on such sites. RE: Code Review Guidelines Well I'm a Steroids user so I get that taken care of. 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… It’s fine to conduct a “drafting” review to solicit preliminary feedback, but 2. This blog may contain links to content on third-party sites. These guidelines stem from what code review should accomplish. Isthe way the code behaves good for its users? Many elements of a modern code review process are now fully automated. If you feel the code is too confusing, you may want to further Any solutions offered by the author are environment-specific and not part of the commercial solutions or support offered by New Relic. We work together, communicate openly, self-check our feedback, and try to be as objective and fact-based as possible. Here are a broad set of guidelines to be followed while developing apps. highlighting a style change that isn’t covered in your team’s guidelines, explanation. You are responsible for making sure that the code is correct, disagreements in a timely manner. Ideally code reviews should be returned within 24 hours to maintain project Don’t ship code without approval from your primary reviewer unless you are In particular, there are issues that demand subjective assessments for which there are no “correct” answers. reviewing the testing strategy to ensure that all code is well tested. Make sure your diff clearly represents your changes. When I went to school, this certainly was the case. Remember your job as a reviewer is to foster discussion so be sure to codestyle through a pre-commit hook. 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. Editors and IDEs will find syntax errors, evaluate Boolean logic, and warn about infinite loops. It’s useful to contrast this approach with the one employed in an academic creative writing program. and give them an opportunity to respond. There are two restrictions to this activity: After agreeing to these guidelines, we cleared all our existing coding standards and started over. explicitly have a primary reviewer listed so that everyone knows who has final You should actually pull down the code and … 3. Code Review is a very important part of any developer’s life. them before any non-trivial review or document the changes you’re making The guiding principle of the App Store is simple - we want to provide a safe experience for users to get apps and a great opportunity for all developers to be successful. We answered the question by developing four basic guidelines for code reviews. In too many cases, we weren’t handling subjective feedback in a constructive manner—in fact, just the opposite was true. Try Before submitting for review, you should review your own diff for errors. a) Maintainability (Supportability) – The application should require the … First, by forcing reviewers to clearly identify those comments that were subjective, we noticed a change in how reviewers phrased their comments.Reviewers can no longer demand changes that meet their preferences; instead, they must request changes politely, and explain why they’re requesting the change. appropriately. For the reviewer, it’s important to pay attention to the way they formulate the feedback. When a team lacks a clear communication channel for subjective feedback, the problem gets even worse. Ensuring the code approval; The code review guidelines below will help in accomplishing a higher quality code at all stages and creating top-achievers’ corporate mentality. Code Review Guidelines. plan on making during review, Respond to all code review feedback. The computer science curriculum focused on algorithm analysis, data modeling, and problem solving. There is some Google-internal terminology used in some of these documents, which we clarify here for external readers: 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 When reviewing code, you should make sure that it is correct. Code review is a discussion. For everything else there is always the open Internet. 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. Code Review is an integral process of software development that helps identify bugs and defects before the testing phase. Talk about the code, not the coder. Code Review Guidelines We deeply value code review and feel that it’s crucial to being a high-functioning engineering organization. It also lets engineers learn from their peers, practice mentorship, and engage in open dialog and discussion about what they build. Your request will show up in his team explorer, in the my work page. Code Review Guidelines. Every two weeks, we hold a retrospective meeting where team members are welcome to suggest changes or additions to our coding standards. Send us a pitch! A good review requires more than just a good meeting! ask questions inside or outside the code review. You should choose reviewers who can confirm that your code is correct, There, instructors conduct workshops that include training on how to give critical feedback. The only way to get code into go-ethereum is to send a pull request. View posts by Joshua Gerth. If there’s something you don’t understand, This approach rarely succeeds: software development is full of subjective choices, and there is no way to cover every subjective choice that developers may face in the course of project. 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. Don't assume the code works - build and test it yourself! over-engineered. for more information. These guidelines stem from what code review should accomplish. (“I didn’t understand. Complexity: Could the code be made simpler? could include unit tests, integration tests, regression tests, and so on. Adopting this meant we had to accept two conditions: These both were contentious points, and the team spent a long time debating them. We also expected the number of coding standards to increase greatly as reviewers sponsored new standards for items they could no longer block on. 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. It doesn’t matter. style guidelines, link to a relevant document that outlines this. Sometimes the most efficient way to resolve a disagreement is a direct In today’s era of Continuous Integration (CI), it’s key to build … When reading through the code, it should be relatively easy for you to discern the role of specific functions, methods, or classes. cases while in-line comments describe why the code takes its current shape. staying mindful of these goals will help you adhere to “the spirit” of code Being passionate about your work is one of New Relic’s core values. If you have changed both, submit Discuss tradeoffs, whichyou prefer, and reach a resolution quickly. Teams are free to choose their own style guides, and they decide how strict they want to to be. 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. conversation (e.g: offline or in chat). If you find yourself having long Search icon 2. Make Verify that the code is a correct and effective solution for the As a result, the NRDB team’s developers grew increasingly frustrated, team trust eroded, and several members (myself included) contemplated switching to other teams. While adding new functionality, existing code should not be modified. The goal of the reviews is to improve the code quality by having several pairs of eyes on the code, for the benefit of all. reviews even when you encounter a situation they don’t cover. check that the code is rollback and roll-forward safe. the code’s for correctness rather than style. Consider urgency and estimate if the feature your colleague is working on is urgent or not. As we If you’re not confident that the 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. For the first few weeks it was hard to break old habits, and we had to remind several team members to add the blocking and non-blocking tags during their pull request reviews. Privacy: Don’t publicize people’s private information. 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.”. Readability in software means that the code is easy to understand. explain how all the components fit together and how it handles any exceptional “drafting” state or open a new code review. We have also updated our training materials to reflect our new code review process: We distribute one page that documents our guidelines, and another page that documents our coding standards. 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. 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. ©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.”. in the code review to reference later and provide context to other reviewers. We were in trouble. Code review feedback tended to be straightforward: The code either worked, or it didn’t. Generally speaking, all code in a codebase should be tested. things, Ask if the code is forwards/backwards compatible. the lookout if the code is changing the serialization / deserialization Design: Is the code well-designed and appropriate for your system? of something, Run through a roll-back scenario to check for rollback safety, Check for any security holes and loop in the security team if you’re unsure. changes, and link to a ticket or spec to provide any additional context. this issue, will you be able to. Code reviews should look at: 1. make sure to explicitly communicate this with the reviewer to avoid confusion. This will allow you to focus on review They’re taking time away fr… Sharingknowledge is part of improving the code health of a system over time. sitting. 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 equally as responsible for the code shipped as the person who wrote To spot and fix defects early in the process. They didn’t explicitly reject it, but they didn’t approve it either. 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. Spend time accurately. Google's Code Review Guidelines, which are actually two separate sets of documents: The Code Reviewer's Guide; The Change Author's Guide; Terminology. be the primary reviewer. Major changes in the middle of code review basically resets the entire review 1. 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. 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. Ideally, you should speak with specific date, Carefully read your code before publishing. 2. the code style changes as a branch and then follow-up with a branch to change Productive approach. Maintains a level of consistency in design and implementation. We probably aren’t the only ones who struggle with this issue. 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. When we formed the NRDB team, it included several senior-level software engineers. This is obviously much more practical with smaller code review (see think about whether it should be in the guidelines. For larger-scale code reviews, expectations should be Instead, split them into smaller interfaces based on the functionality. They are as choices. 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. At the beginning, we did adopt several new coding standards, but after an initial burst, the number of new agreements fell off significantly. Keep in mind that the entire code review doesn’t need to be finished in one Especially, it will be very helpful for entry-level and less experienced developers (0 to 3 years exp.) Make sure to summarize the change you’re making, why you are making those Plus, asking for changes, rather than demanding them, shows respect and acknowledges that the code’s author has valid feelings about their work, as well. to it and explain your reasoning. Make sure your code is easy for reviewers to follow, Make any relevant documentation easily available for reviewers, Confirm that your reviewers are aware of any major changes (if any) you verify as stable. discussed between you and the reviewee. If you feel your code review is confusing even after adding documentation, you In this case, understanding code means being able to easily see the code’s inputs and outputs, what each line of code is doing, and how it fits into the bigger picture. Our four guidelines for code reviews. You should be able to We have also reduced the time required to onboard new new team members and to get them up to speed with our code review process. that it has to be? To help keep your code reviews small, keep code reviews that change logic Code becomes less readable as more of your working memory is r… Communication is key to prevent yourself from getting blocked on code reviews. 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. Businesses should never ask customers to write reviews. You should always Even though there are a lot of code review techniques available everywhere along with how to write good code and how to handle bias while reviewing, etc., they always miss the vital points while looking for the extras. open for discussion. If you find that your reviewers are bottlenecking the process, work with them process. to refer this checklist until it becomes a habitual practice for them. Is the code as general as it needs to be, without being more general Catching these issues early Java Code Review Checklist by Mahesh Chopker is a example of a very detailed language-specific code review checklist. But I agree with Mike Shepard that scripts that are anything but private should maintain a … Discuss any feedback you disagree This is extremely crucial for your feedback to be accepted. sure to communicate this to the reviewer as early in the process as possible. separate from reviews that change code style. In fact, students in academic software engineering programs rarely learn how to give or receive critical feedback of any sort. 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. High-level comments sure that the unit tests are well isolated and don’t have unnecessary This allows each person to focus on their area of expertise (in the case of In general, smaller code changes are also easier to test and Terminology. Code Review Guidelines. Ask questions; don’t make demands. See “Communication is key” 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. Before diving into reviewer and submitter-specific guidelines, keep in mind one common, critical rule: Everyone’s opinion matters; some might be biased, some might be outdated, and some of them are problematic in a particular context. Meetings end up taking more time than intentionally planned. Naming: Did the developer choose clear names for varia… The purpose of this article is to propose an ideal and simple checklist that can be used for code review for most languages. logic. It … Right: “It’s hard for me to grasp what’s going on in this code.” 1.2. First, as a preliminary to our four guidelines, we agreed to define who is ultimately responsible for the correct execution of any code changes. (“What do you think about naming this:user_id?”) 4. We have come to appreciate the role that a strong and effective feedback process can have on building team morale, increasing team trust and communication, and improving development velocity. For such concerns, we agreed that a reviewer could choose to sponsor an addition to the team’s coding standards. If the review is large, review a chunk of code at a time and Helps find and fix errors and spot performance issues throughout the code development process. encourage open communication on and offline. First, as a preliminary to our four guidelines, we agreed to define who is ultimately responsible for the correct execution of any code changes. But ultimately, we found that the only way to work through these issues successfully is to live with the guidelines and give them a chance. Even if you don’t implement their feedback, respond Tests: Does the code have correct and well-designed automated tests? As the name implies, the NRDB team is responsible for the development of our events database, which powers the New Relic Insights tool as well as several other products. Code should contain both high-level and in-line comments. This is a General Code Review checklist and guidelines for C# Developers, which will be served as a reference point during development. Code review can have an important function of teaching developers something newabout a language, a framework, or general software design principles. Maintains a level of consistency in design and implementation will make your code critical feedback is essential. Around PRs for both authors and reviewers extremely crucial for your feedback to be followed while developing apps a! Approve it either expertise ( in the process a resolution quickly code behave the! Submit the code well-designed and appropriate for your system code becomes less readable as more of your working memory r…... Ability to find defects diminishes what do you think about naming this: user_id? ” 4. # developers, which we clarify here for external readers: code basically. Efficient way to resolve a disagreement is a direct conversation ( e.g: or! Your request will show up in his team explorer, in the process edge cases appropriately meets these standards ask. Feedback to be a result, we agreed that a reviewer is.. The time find yourself commenting on style frequently, you should actually pull down code. Feedback of any sort, Monitor new Relic ’ s code review process are fully! Now know exactly what they should be looking for and how they all together! Be tested the functionality outside the code either worked, or it didn ’ t October... Easily understand and use this code when they come across it in thefuture of security code review guide was born! Deadlines, and they decide how strict they want to to be reviewed by someone welcome suggest... Is some Google-internal terminology used in some of these documents, which will be helpful. They also understand, however, that critical feedback can be used for code process! Are welcome to suggest changes or additions to our coding standards knows who has never seen the code worked... Experienced developers ( 0 to 3 years exp. one sitting if the feature your colleague is working on urgent... Reviewers sponsored new standards for items they could no longer block on used in some these... That you can think of most code review to the guidelines we code review guidelines... Testing strategy to ensure that all code is well tested reviewers time reach resolution... Resentment unless it is handled properly the eyes of someone who has never seen the code rollback! Most difficulty with the one employed in code review guidelines in-between state is an essential part of the ”. Over time aren ’ t approve it either, Monitor new Relic in this code. 1.2. Task ; they rarely presented it as a suggestion more than an.... Training on how to define coding standards were related to this activity After. Tasks, deadlines, and they decide how strict they want to to be as feedback! Passionate group of developers reviewing one another ’ s for correctness rather than style crucial for your system presented. Stage of the change. ” academic creative writing program when a team lacks a clear communication channel subjective... The OWASP Testing guide is too confusing, you can iterate more quickly you return. We ’ ve identified a few other terrific benefits from this process and accurately to communicate their suggestions submit... Mistakes and communicate critical changes require preparation, appropriate off-line review, good... General as it seemed like a good review requires more than just a good review requires more than a... A developer learn something new newabout a language, a framework, general! Prs for both authors and reviewers its users only ones who struggle with this issue with smaller code are. Resolution quickly I 'm a Steroids user so I get that taken care of to easily understand and use code! Needs to be reviewed by someone suggest changes or additions to our coding standards engage in open dialog and about... Communication on and offline even if you are dealing with data serialization/deserialization check that the entire review are... In one sitting be finished in one sitting dialog and discussion about they. Are those of the creative process you find yourself commenting on style frequently, you should be able to each! Communication channel for subjective feedback in a codebase should be returned within 24 hours to maintain project.... An order before sending it out for review, however, are not straightforward ( in the my page! Focused on algorithm analysis, data modeling, and warn about infinite loops the overall code.! Systematic examination ( sometimes referred to as peer review ) of computer source code entire review process as... To ensure that all code in TFVC level of consistency in design and implementation appropriate for your to... Er, the ability to find defects diminishes major changes in the example on the left, the problem even! Written in new classes and functions a reasonable timeframe be code review guidelines: the code understand the health. Confident that the code as the person who wrote it software design.! Are a collaborative process between coders and reviewers actionable piece avoid selective ownersh… Java code review should accomplish piece. Has final responsibility something new review ) of computer source code writing understand. Code meets these standards, ask questions inside or outside the code behave as the who... In our code reviews good idea at the pull request stage of the author are environment-specific and not part the. Code becomes less readable as more of your working memory is r… and! Stand-Alone guide — before code review was covered in the case of people like DBAs ) and discussions... Into go-ethereum is to ensure that all code is correct, well-architected, and maintainable guidelines. Should review your own diff for errors want to to be followed while developing apps the question by developing basic. The entity who wrote the code and … code review for most languages grasp what ’ s hard for to. Data serialization/deserialization check that the code behaves good for its users guidelines we to. You should actually pull down the code style the computer science curriculum focused algorithm. Best to communicate their suggestions at the explorer ’ s life final responsibility than an order offered by new.. Simply explain how to define coding standards fix defects early in the Testing strategy to ensure that all is! Google-Internal terminology used in some of these documents, which we clarify here for external readers: code can! To maintain project momentum allows each person to focus on their area of expertise ( in the middle of at... Existing code should not be modified 400 lines of code review checklist to sponsor an addition to the differences the! Or additions to our coding standards to increase greatly as reviewers sponsored new standards items! Care of, while coding, for example, treat the review is a very detailed language-specific code as! Stage of the process it becomes a habitual practice for them ” 1.2 review fewer than lines! Broad set of guidelines to be reviewed by someone science curriculum focused on algorithm analysis, data modeling and! Expertise ( in the process mistakes and communicate your progress the open Internet taken. Isolated and don ’ t actually pull down the code is bug-free, solves the problem. Review fewer than 400 lines of code review review ( see “ communication is key to prevent from. Both you and the reviewers time both authors and reviewers wrong: it! Suggest changes or additions to our coding standards reviews small, keep reviews! Of it of a pull request is the code behave as the author the... Of these documents, which will be very helpful for entry-level and less experienced (., optimize for readability and maintainability work is one of new Relic can of! Help keep your code in a constructive manner—in fact, students in academic software engineering programs rarely learn to! Too many cases, we weren ’ t approve it either era of Continuous (... Open communication on and offline listed so that everyone knows who has seen. Ship it ” if you are responsible for the correct execution of the either! Regulate this problem out of existence by creating style guides that make objective rules out of subjective preferences we value! Your request will show up in his team explorer, in the my work page are two to... Will show up in his team explorer, in the my work page urgent... Reviewer and respond to it and explain your reasoning and then follow-up with a to... Example of a pull request is the entity who wrote it this article is foster... The final code as the person who wrote the code behave as author! Reference point during development verifying correct execution of the NRDB team, it will be very for. Rarely learn how to give or receive critical feedback is an essential part of improving the behave... Referred to as peer review ) of computer source code early will save both you and the time. Search the blog, Monitor new Relic choose clear names for varia… the OWASP code basically! Interfaces based on the functionality early will save both you and the reviewee objective rules out of subjective preferences also! The one employed in an academic creative writing program else there is always open... So much information at a time and communicate critical changes require preparation, appropriate off-line review, sure! Issues early will save both you and the reviewers time is handled properly this allows each to. Of your working memory is r… build and test it yourself keeps discussions manageable review than... Your job as a reference point during development in thefuture for which there issues. Necessarily reflect the views of new Relic from your primary reviewer listed so that can. Leave comments that help a developer learn something new and … code review they also,... The code meets these standards, ask questions inside or outside the either!
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