Effective Code Review

Purpose of Code Review

Although the main objective of code review is to identify defects before promotion, it also aims to improve code readability & maintenance, and to facilitate knowledge transfer, helping developers enhance their skills and become better programmers.

Establish Processes, Standards and Tools:

• Create documentation for code review standards.
• Implement tools (e.g., StyleCop, CodeQL, Linter) to enforce style and rules for consistency and automate security checks.
• Set up a process for generating code review requests, also known as Pull Requests in Git.

Pre-Review Preparation:

• Review the requirements outlined in relevant documentation
• Review the description of the code review request to understand the purpose of the change.
• Examine commits, files changed, and comments to identify the code changes you are reviewing.

Code Review Process:

• Focus on reviewing only new code or changes to existing code.
• Check the functionality of the code to ensure it works as intended as well as test or debug the changes, if possible, to verify they meet the requirements.
• Ensure the code structure is maintainable, readable, testable, portable, reusable, and adheres to coding standards. The code should be clean, well-organized, and follow best practices.
• Verify that the code properly handles errors and identify potential exceptions or issues, such as null references or file locks.
• Evaluate the code for potential performance issues and security vulnerabilities, such as high memory usage, hard-coded credentials, SQL injection risks, and HTTP redirects.
• Check for thread safety to identify code that could potentially cause deadlocks or race conditions.

Feedback and Discussion:

• Provide positive feedback, be specific and clear in your comments.
• Offer suggestions for improvement and explain why the changes are needed.
• Encourage discussion to foster better solutions and learning opportunities.

Post-Review Follow-Up:

• Follow up to ensure the suggested changes are implemented and provide appropriate approval as necessary.

Keep in mind that there are multiple ways to approach a coding task, however there's always an opportunity to improve and learn.