Getting More Out of Code Reviews

Reviews should be kind, constructive, and full of learning.

A code review should improve the change and spread understanding, not provide a venue for competitive punctuation. The most useful reviews focus on risk, intent and maintainability while remembering there is a person on the other side of the diff.

A useful review improves the change and the shared understanding around it. That means explaining why something worries me, distinguishing preferences from risks, and leaving room for the author to know something I do not.

What makes this interesting is not the fashionable part. It is the effect on the person doing the work after the initial excitement has worn off.

Technical communication is part of the product, even when the audience is only the next developer. A clear explanation shortens the distance between confusion and useful action.

That is not a dramatic conclusion, but useful work is often built from undramatic conclusions applied consistently.