Code review is an integral part of a software developer’s work. A very interesting aspect of it is that a developer experiences both sides of the review process — as an author and as a reviewer.
An author is often the one who is the most familiar with the concept, side effects and limitations of the solution. However, having seen the code too often, they might start suffering from the so-called “code blindness” — they stop seeing the big picture and get lost in the details. This is the moment when a fresh pair of eyes is of extra importance.
A reviewer is the one who has a fresh look on things. They usually see the solution from a different angle, noticing issues that were in the author’s blind spot. Not unlike an editor, a reviewer may comment on the code or even request changes to improve the overall quality. They are also the one who by design provides the best feedback about how understandable and clear the changes are to the developers not involved in the feature.
We at djangsters believe that code review is crucial for healthy project development. Our motto is “You are not married to your code”, meaning that we avoid emotional attachment to a given solution and stay open to changes and improvements. In our team we encourage comments, questions and suggestions. We highly value feedback and the effort of every reviewer and see it not only as a safety net, but as collaboration between developers. Sometimes it can lead to a new and qualitatively better solution than a solo effort would yield.
Our experience shows that code review practice results in significant architecture and readability improvements, which in turn facilitate faster feature development. In addition to this, we are happy to make an extra review iteration during development instead of fighting fires on a live system — a win-win strategy for both developers and stakeholders.
