We've all had them; code reviews that just aren't effective. Here are a few scenarios.
I would love to hear your feedback about other types of reviews you have encountered.
As a submitter:
The '0' feedback code review
You eagerly prepare your code, a few methods and a few new tests. Submit it to the guild. Appoint the master code reviewers. The reviewers give it a +2 a minute later, with no feedback what so ever. WFT... surely there has to be something wrong with it?
The "Trivial" details code review
You submit your code to the review board. After a wait, the results come in. The reviewer wants the variables and methods in alphabetic order. They insist on putting in all the full stops on the comments. They are making it a blocker that you don't know the difference between "it's" and "its". They point out you are missing capitalisation in your javadocs. You haven't expanded three letter acronyms on their first use…
The "goes on forever" code review
We submit out code for review. A few days later, the first set of reviewers find numerous "serious" issues. We address all the comments. It goes out for review again. The following week, the next set of reviewers find another set of serious issues. We address all those and our code goes out again. Another week goes by and next set of comments back highlight another, different set of "serious" issues. We address those and the code goes out to the reviewers again. The next set of comments back and highlighting some of the same stuff as the first review, that the third code review made you put in…
The "Self" review
You are using a code review tool because the organisation process requires you to use one. However your team has no real interest in each others work. When you make changes, you put them up for review. But you always push through your own code anyway.
As a reviewer:
The "token" code review
It's 16:40 on Friday. The sprint ends in 15 mins. Bam! Into your mail box, comes a review for a critical feature for this sprint. The change set is long, several classes with a few hundred lines of code. Just remember it has to be in the main branch by 16:45… and that includes any re-work! It only takes a fraction of a second to hit that +1 button and the weekend is yours!
The guy who is always right review
The author is never wrong. How can you criticise this guy? Their code is flawless. Always. Even when you spot a real issue, they won't listen to you. They'll justify the unnecessary, out of scope code in the solution with fancy subjective words like "extensible" and "future-proofing". Some sections of the code might be unreadable to you, but that’s only because you are a lesser programmer and we'll save several nano-seconds during execution because he used an obscure construct. Basically this code is right. You are wrong.
The guy who is always wrong review
This guy just doesn't get it. The solution proposed isn't just a little bit wrong, it's completely wrong. There are no tests whatsoever. There is no concept of the agreed style guide, he just copied a large chunk of code from anther part of the system - changed a few strings and it's the proposed solution?
The death by a 1000 updates' review
So you get the call for a code review into your inbox. You gallantly volunteer to take it on and you fire up the tool. You spend 40 minutes reviewing the problem statement, then the tests and pick your way through the solution adding your comments as you go. Next thing you check the tool and there is an update to the commit. Many of your comments are now null and void due to the changes submitted. No panic. You start picking your way through the new solution again. Thirty minutes later, in pops another set of significant changes, rendering many of your comments null and void... again! So you start the review... again!
The "rutting" code review
A senior developer has submitted their code for review. Another senior developer has taken up the challenge. These two never see eye to eye. The comments come thick and fast with slightly confrontational and inappropriate language. It's a thinly veiled "you are an idiot"! The gauntlet has been thrown down. The submitter is not going to take that sort of "threat" lying down and they respond in kind, in the tool. The insults and accusations go back and forth for all to see in plain text. The tension rises. Other reviewers fall away, afraid of getting caught in the cross fire. Sooner or later either one declares the other one is wrong or Godwins' law will apply! At this point someone else will step in, merge the code and promises to keep these two apart in future!
Updated 23rd September, 2016 Updated 3rd July, 2017
