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I'd argue that if you have a toxic team culture then no matter what you do things will escalate. Code reviews are a focal point but if they didn't exist then th
by marcinzm 8y ago
I'd argue that if you have a toxic team culture then no matter what you do things will escalate. Code reviews are a focal point but if they didn't exist then the focal point would move somewhere else. For example, engineer A commits some code and then engineer B rewrites it and then they get into an argument about it during a meeting. Toxicity in code reviews is at least auditable so a pro-active manager can nip it versus someone going off in a meeting they weren't part of (in which case it becomes a she said/he said situation).
- matfil 8y agoI don't think "toxic team culture" is the only way code reviews get frustrating. Other issues include frustrating waiting for reviews to be completed or the flip-side of people being knocked out of flow to do a review because "reviews are top priority". Relatedly, arguments about what the appropriate size is for a reviewable change. The one alternative that (some) code-review advocates seem willing to accept is XP-style full-time pair programming. But that leaves even less room for individuality and solo accomplishment.