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.
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