3 ms·

Thank you to the parent for asking this question. I have some related questions for all engineers and engineering managers. I'd love to hear your perspective f

by verst 11y ago

Thank you to the parent for asking this question. I have some related questions for all engineers and engineering managers. I'd love to hear your perspective from your current or most recent job: - Do you think Engineering managers are aware how much time you spend on Code Reviews? - Do you track your number of / time spent on code reviews? Does your manager? - Are code reviews valued as much / more / less than writing new code? Why / Why not? - How are code reviews prioritized against writing code for bug fixes, or implementing new features? - How do you choose a code reviewer? - Do you ensure code reviews are distributed across the team? If not, how would you do it? How do you ensure you are not doing too many reviews yourself?

skewart 11y ago
OP here, you're welcone! I'm thrilled at how many awesome responses there are here. You bring up some really important questions that I think get at the heart of the problems teams often have with code review. Even if it is valued in an abstract way, it isn't really treated like a first class coding task. It's not measured and planned in the same way that writing code is. It seems like a lot of comments here talk about ways to quantify code review and bring it onto more of an equal footing with writing. On my team we all informally budget time for reviewing PRs, but we don't really plan and track it with any rigor. I don't think any of us have a very good idea how much time anyone else spends on code review, which can make picking a reviewer awkward. I'm curious to hear other people's responses to your questions.
verst 11y ago
I'll start by answering based on my last gig (at a startup). ===== > Do you think Engineering managers are aware how much time you spend on Code Reviews? No. > Do you track your number of / time spent on code reviews? Does your manager? Me: Only informally (might mention it during stand-up). Manager: No. > Are code reviews valued as much / more / less than writing new code? Why / Why not? Valued less. Manager did not seem to value code review as a worthy task. > How are code reviews prioritized against writing code for bug fixes, or implementing new features? Code reviews are not planned in the work load :(. Engineers have to try to carve out time for code reviews. > How do you choose a code reviewer? I usually assign reviews to the engineer who knows the feature best or with whom I have the best working relationship. Sometimes I assign to the engineers who will get to my code review the soonest. > Do you ensure code reviews are distributed across the team? If not, how would you do it? How do you ensure you are not doing too many reviews yourself? No. Might be nice to have a team queue for code reviews and the engineering manager making sure that everybody participates in reviews.

by verst 11y ago

skewart 11y ago

OP here, you're welcone! I'm thrilled at how many awesome responses there are here. You bring up some really important questions that I think get at the heart of the problems teams often have with code review. Even if it is valued in an abstract way, it isn't really treated like a first class coding task. It's not measured and planned in the same way that writing code is. It seems like a lot of comments here talk about ways to quantify code review and bring it onto more of an equal footing with writing. On my team we all informally budget time for reviewing PRs, but we don't really plan and track it with any rigor. I don't think any of us have a very good idea how much time anyone else spends on code review, which can make picking a reviewer awkward. I'm curious to hear other people's responses to your questions.

verst 11y ago

I'll start by answering based on my last gig (at a startup). ===== > Do you think Engineering managers are aware how much time you spend on Code Reviews? No. > Do you track your number of / time spent on code reviews? Does your manager? Me: Only informally (might mention it during stand-up). Manager: No. > Are code reviews valued as much / more / less than writing new code? Why / Why not? Valued less. Manager did not seem to value code review as a worthy task. > How are code reviews prioritized against writing code for bug fixes, or implementing new features? Code reviews are not planned in the work load :(. Engineers have to try to carve out time for code reviews. > How do you choose a code reviewer? I usually assign reviews to the engineer who knows the feature best or with whom I have the best working relationship. Sometimes I assign to the engineers who will get to my code review the soonest. > Do you ensure code reviews are distributed across the team? If not, how would you do it? How do you ensure you are not doing too many reviews yourself? No. Might be nice to have a team queue for code reviews and the engineering manager making sure that everybody participates in reviews.