Refcard #291

Code Review Patterns and Anti-Patterns

The code review process is crucial for quality assurance, and there are many ways of going about it. Patterns for code review make this process run a lot more smoothy. This Refcard covers eight of the most popular patterns: long-running PRs, self-merging PRs, heroing, over-helping, “just one more thing,” rubber stamping, knowledge silos, and a high bus factor.

Free PDF for Easy Reference

Written By

Jennifer McGrath

Product Manager, GitPrime

Table of Contents

Introduction

Section 1

Introduction

Effective engineering managers are also effective debuggers. Effective managers view their teams as complex interdependent systems, with inputs and outputs. When the outputs aren't as expected, great managers approach the problem with curiosity and are relentless in their pursuit of the root cause. They watch code reviews and visualize work patterns, spotting bottlenecks or process issues that, when cleared, increase the overall capacity of the team.

By searching for "why" they uncover organizational issues, and learn how their teams work and how to resolve these problems in the future.

This Refcard is a collection of common team dynamics in the code review process that we’ve observed in working with hundreds of software teams.

This is page 1 of the Code Review Patterns and Anti-Patterns Refcard. To read the full Refcard, you can download the full PDF above.