Here's how you can optimize code review and feedback processes as a remote software designer.
Optimizing code review and feedback processes is crucial for remote software designers to maintain high-quality standards and effective collaboration. As a remote designer, you're likely familiar with the challenges of asynchronous communication and the need for clear, concise feedback. By refining your review processes, you can enhance your team's productivity and code quality while also fostering a culture of continuous improvement. This article will guide you through practical strategies to optimize your remote code review and feedback workflows, ensuring that distance is no barrier to successful software design.
Establishing clear guidelines is the foundation of an effective code review process. As a remote software designer, you should create a document outlining your team's code review standards, including coding conventions, design patterns, and performance benchmarks. This document should be easily accessible and regularly updated to reflect the evolving best practices within your field. By having a shared understanding of expectations, you can minimize misunderstandings and focus reviews on substantive issues rather than stylistic preferences.
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Alexander Kolyada
Senior Software Engineer at EPAM Systems
There was a colleague of mine who used to spend more than half of his work time doing code reviews. When I asked him why it takes so much time, he said that first, he needs to get the code, compile it, run all the tests, and then start discovering his own solution on the ticket. Basically, he did all the job twice. After that, he argued a lot about name conventions and all that stuff but it was so time-consuming for all participants because there were no code conventions defined. So, there are a lot of aspects that are just impossible to cover in such a short manner.
Selecting the right tools can make or break the efficiency of remote code reviews. Look for platforms that allow for inline comments, threaded discussions, and real-time collaboration. These features enable you to pinpoint specific code segments and provide context-sensitive feedback, which is particularly helpful when team members are in different time zones. Additionally, tools that integrate with your version control system can streamline the review process by automatically syncing changes and facilitating the tracking of issues.
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Alexander Kolyada
Senior Software Engineer at EPAM Systems
It was an unexpected discovery for me, but not only old-school developers avoid using UI tools at work with subversioning system / compare / diff-merge tasks. For some reason, many junior and middle developers uses ONLY CLI tools. This might be a valid case when you find yourself in some non-standard situation where UI tools are useless. But it happens only in 1% of all cases. The other 99% can be done using nice UI tools. Setting up tooling for the team also makes sense.
Timeliness in feedback is critical to maintaining momentum in a remote environment. You should aim to provide feedback within a predefined window, ideally within a day or two of the code submission. This prevents bottlenecks and keeps projects moving forward. To manage this, consider setting aside dedicated time for code reviews in your daily schedule. By doing so, you ensure that reviews are treated as a priority and that your colleagues receive timely responses to their work.
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Alexander Kolyada
Senior Software Engineer at EPAM Systems
I was in a number of situations when it was decided to keep everyone's code in branches and a day before release review and merge everything. The reason behind this solution was usually tight timelines and underestimation of the sprint. Needless to say that this trick never worked out. It was a disaster every time.
Offering constructive critique is essential for a positive and productive code review culture. Feedback should be specific, actionable, and focused on the code rather than the coder. Instead of simply pointing out problems, suggest improvements or alternatives. This approach not only helps in resolving issues but also contributes to the professional growth of your team members. Remember to balance criticism with recognition of what has been done well to maintain morale and encourage good practices.
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Alexander Kolyada
Senior Software Engineer at EPAM Systems
To be able to provide constructive critique, you need to understand why something should be done that way but not another. Preferrably, put some proof links to best practices or written conventions that exist in your team.
Embracing an iterative process for code reviews can lead to more refined and robust software design. Encourage your team to view code reviews as a dialogue rather than a one-off event. This means being open to follow-up discussions and additional rounds of review if necessary. Iteration allows for continuous refinement and can help catch issues that might have been overlooked in the initial pass. It also promotes a deeper understanding of the codebase among team members.
Code reviews are an excellent opportunity for knowledge sharing within remote teams. Use them as a platform to discuss alternative solutions, share insights on new technologies, or explain complex algorithms. This not only improves the quality of the code being reviewed but also enhances the overall skill set of your team. Over time, this collective learning environment will lead to more efficient problem-solving and innovation in your software design projects.
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Alexander Kolyada
Senior Software Engineer at EPAM Systems
The whole process of code review is not only to control someone's code quality. But also it allows to the whole team to get to know all parts of the system, not only your area.
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jacob kemple
Principal Software Engineer
From personal experience there are two components to code reviews that are a major positive for the team, besides the ones listed in this article obviously. Those should be a given. - Have a specific meeting on the calander periodically to go over the most recent code reviews both complete and pending. This is because it let's the entire team understand the decisions bring made on a higher level for your project, but also because team members might have questions about a code review that is accepted but they want clarity. - Make sure the team reviews and is familiar with the most recent reviews prior to the meeting so that any questions or discussions they want to have are prepared in advanced.
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