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> For many engineers - including me - it feels good to leave a blocking review, for the same reasons that it feels good to gatekeep in general. Clearly this is
by hinkley 1y ago
> For many engineers - including me - it feels good to leave a blocking review, for the same reasons that it feels good to gatekeep in general.
Clearly this is not true for everyone, but I don't think I've ever felt good about gatekeeping, and a number of people I respect generally don't either. Blocking is a weapon of last resort. That someone has had to use it means either that the system isn't working, or they're abusing the tool.
Someone shouldn't arrive at the final phase of their ticket and be told to start it over. That's a retrospective item, and if it's happened multiple times then this is an agenda item at the retro meeting.
- rkomorn 1y ago> Blocking is a weapon of last resort This is exactly how I feel. The only times I would block a PR is if I know it will either: a- actually break something existing b- not deliver what the PR says it should deliver (eg new feature but the feature doesn't actually work) It's basically saying "I'm certain that if we merge this, something bad will happen and we'll either cause an incident or need a hotfix".
- hinkley 1y agoc - it represents a complete failure to adhere to a standard of coding that we all approved as a group. Any of these things are a negative commentary on your process, or the members of your team. When one finds oneself standing in a hole, it is important to stop digging.
- rkomorn 1y agoAgreed on c- . The rest seems a bit strident. Stuff happens. I wouldn't exactly go running to the incident/retro unless there was repeated pattern.