A Guide to Code Reviews

A Guide to Code Reviews

If your are reviewing a PR, it's not just your job to confirm all tests pass, you must complete a code review. Code reviews ensure all our software conforms to high standards and exist as a very good way to pass knowledge to your team members.

It's important to remember when doing your code reviews:

• Be kind, don't leave any comments on a review you would not be happy receiving yourself.
• Avoid needlessly nitpicking. It's better to focus on issues that may cause errors or where readability is struggling. Don't annoy the developer that will have to action all these changes.
• You don't have to find flaws! It's OK to review code where you find no issues, just make sure to note that.

Good Comments

When reviewing code, good review comments are ones which suggest changes without being judgemental.

Asking questions like:

"Why would you do this?"

where you believe a better solution existed, will make a developer feel threatened or attacked. This could be better asked:

"In JavaScript we can use this syntax, it's a lot more readable"

Phrasing comments like this, justify why a change might be needed and you've avoided directing a question directly at the author so they can separate the critique from their own work.

Making comments