Get The Effective Code Review- How?
Writing code means you have to put in your full mind effort, and then, in the end, you can have your correct code. In the programming world, no code is perfect; while developing a code, you must remember to develop a code that can be changed or improved after some time. The perfect code is the one that has some lacking in it so that after some time, it can be changed or improved by someone else. Getting a flawless code at the end is a very difficult task as you have to do so much hard work and require more concentration. When any person is reviewing the code, the developer will not say that this code will be a bug as this is impossible.
Reviewing the code will help the developer find the bug before users experience it. So,Thisy, it is beneficial to review the code. Reviewing the code means you will detect any bug in the code and any other flaws so that you can inform the developer about it, and he can change the errors within time before anyone else notices it. Review can be done on the developer’s demand, or any other person can review any code. But for that, you must learn to review the code effectively, which we will tell you in this article. This article will be wholesome for the reviewing of code. By the end of this topic, you will have in mind why code review is important and how we can do this.
Let’s get initiated.
Code Review
To understand the code review process, first, you should know what code review is. Code review is mainly the examination of software source code to detect any errors, bugs, or mistakes in the software code. From code review, you can also improve the quality of code and its consistency, making your code more maintainable. Code review is mostly done by different peers so that they can detect any faults in it.
To develop a high-quality, reliable, and secure application, you must first develop well-designed code. Being a software developer, when you generate the code for your software, first you have to make some people review that code, and if they clear it, you can proceed.
You might think that code review is just like pointing out I’s and crossing your T’s, but no, code review is far more than this. Code reviewing also allows for providing coaching, mentoring, and guidance.
Why Is It Necessary?
Although effective code review is optional, code review is very important if you want clean or well-managed code for your software. You can also have a clean repository if you have performed the code review correctly. This is the only way for software developers to prevent technical debt, discuss alternatives and other important ways of implementing the features, and many more. A secure, well-established application requires well-managed, clean, and maintainable code to enter the repository.
With this code review, you can also learn many other things about the code from the person who is reviewing your code. He can guide you in generating code that will be well-managed and free of bugs. While reviewing the code, never underestimate others; always seek help from other people in your surroundings to do better in your job. The person who thinks he is the best and can do anything on his own will always fall and fail. So you have to drop that attitude and ask for help whenever needed. Doing the code review correctly just because you want to avoid asking for help will affect all the developer applications.
Do The Effective Code Review
Understanding the importance of code review is not just enough; you also must learn how to do this task more effectively. Effective code review depends on which Source Control Manager you are using; if the source control manager you are using needs the built-in code review mechanism, it might be difficult for you because then you have to go for the third-party options. While using the GIT, you can say PR is the most effective way to track or do the code review for your application code.
While doing the code review, there are some important points that you have to consider for doing it correctly. Let’s see what points will make your code review effective.
Make Your Code Review Effective
While creating the team that will do the code review of your software, ensure that they understand all the rules and guidelines so that they will get everything right. Code review is the process for higher achievements or more productivity, not for the competition. Let’s see those important considerations:
1. Know Your Motto
For doing the code review the developers or the person doing the code review should know what he has to look for. For example, functionality, design, style, logic, and consistency. If you are aware of these review processes, you must know the static code analysis; this feature will help you , automatically correct some code review characteristics like structure and logic,. But it would help if you did the manual review for other characteristics like style and design as there is no automatic option.
After the person has done the review, the developer should check it for the following things: whether it is understandable what this code does or does the code functions as it is you have expected. If you get all the answers to these questions positively, your code review is done effectively, and you are good to go. But if there is something wrong with the answers, you must go through the review process again and with more consideration.
2. Review Less Than 400 Lines At A Time
Never do your work in a rush, as it will always end up in a mess. While revising the code for your application, it is necessary to always review less than 200 to 400 lines of code at a time. More than that will not be digested by your mind effectively, and you will be unable to detect the errors effectively. Beyond this limit, your mind’s ability to detect errors will be diminished.
While doing the code review, it is experienced that a review of 200 to 400 lines of code will take over 90 minutes and yield 70- 90 % defect discovery. If your code has more than 10 defects, only 7 to 9 will be detected by the person.
3. Automate Before Review
It is always best to do the automation before the reviewing process. Continuous integration is the key to developing bug-free or error-free code when you run a series of automated tests or examinations while generating the code each time you make some changes. Before doing the whole code review, it is important to do continuous integration.
When a person performs different tests or examinations, he will get the code with much fewer errors or bugs. And because of fewer bugs or errors, it becomes easy for the developer to do the manual checking or codes as it will be quick, time-saving, and smoother. So, continuous integration is very important in developing the correct code.
4. Limited Review Sessions
The correct ef, effective review can only be done when the developer is 100 times more focused on the task he is doing. However, it is also observed that when any person does a task requiring more concentration, he will drop that concentration after approximately 60 minutes. After that, he won’t be able to work with that concentration. So it is important to do some break time every 60 minutes so that your mind can relax and you can start again with the same concentration level after some time.
It is always recommended to do the code review in short sessions; this way, the developer will be able to reset his mind and give improved quality of the review. As we said, take your time doing code reviews or review too long in one sitting. Break from the long task will improve the quality of the task.
5. Set Your Goals And Metrics
Everyone has different goals or motto in their mind; explaining the goal of code review before the process will make it easier to develop effective code and decide if the review brings value and helps you achieve the expected results. To have better quality code, it is important to set the external or internal metrics using SMART criteria; it will help the developer to generate good quality code. While looking for the metrics, in internal process metrics, look for:
INSPECTION RATE– the maximum or minimum speed with which you can easily review code
DEFECT RATE– it will detect the total number of bugs or errors that will be found per hour of review
DEFECT DENSITY– it is the average number of bugs or errors that can be found per line of code.
The metric-driven code reviews have some tools that collect the data automatically so that all of it will be free of human error.
6. Gloss The Code Before Review
Glossing the code means the developer has to leave comments about the details of the code he has generated for the reviewer so that there will be some ease for him. This explanation will include what each line of code is trying to say and the purpose of these codes. It will help the reviewer to know the modification methods used by the developer and changes done to the code and will also tell him the purpose of the code.
It will assist the code reviewer in simplifying the code review process and give him a deep understanding of the whole code. Through this process, the developer will see the whole code again, and he might find some bugs or errors by himself even before the reviewer. Finding the bugs before peer review will yield lower defect density.
7. Have Checklists
Before handling your codes to the code reviewer, you should make a checklist in which you will add all the important points you have missed and want the reviewer to check on them with more concentration. Sometimes, the developer forgets to check for some important things; this checklist will help the reviewer first go through those checklist points so that those points will always be included.
With this checklist, the reviewer will do the review while having some criteria or things in mind. For developers, these checklists will also be beneficial as they will help them know anything left behind in the code; they have to generate the checklist before code generation so that they can easily cover up all the main points in the checklist.
8. Get More Eyes
While doing the code review, it is very important to have as many people as possible to check for errors or bugs you have missed. If the reviewer is doing his task while keeping in mind that his work will be reviewed again, he will do it with more concentration. It does not matter how qualified you are; if you are doing a code review, always ask the other people in your field to check those codes so that you won’t miswon’t on any bugs. Everyone should be included in the code review process to make it more effective.
These are the points that will help you to make your code review more effective and will give you well well-managed application.
Conclusion
When choosing the outsourced vendor for the software development, you should check that they are going through the code review process in the application workflow. And also how their team is working to make the code review more effective. Code review is as important as code generation. You have to pay more attention to different things while doing the code review to make the whole process more effective in your favor.
In this article, we have shared how to get the whole code review process more effectively. These points we have mentioned will help you to do an effective code review for your application.
FAQs
1. Is it important to do the code review?
Yes, it is very important to do so as it will help the developer or reviewer to know any bugs or errors in the code before the user can find out, and you can easily make the changes before the app goes live.
2. What is a static code analyzer?
This feature will help you know the errors or bugs without checking manually and also help you do the code styling or many characteristics automatically.
