The Feedback Loop with Thijs Reijgersberg and Jeroen van den Heuvel
In this episode we are lucky to be joined by Thijs Reijgersberg and Jeroen van den Heuvel, developers at Instapro. We start off the show with discussion on the importance of feedback within the Software Development Lifecycle, highlighting the different forms of feedback found throughout. This leads us on to the focus of the show, code reviews - where we describe what a review is and how it helps maintain the overall health of a system. From here, we document how they conduct a review, highlighting where design, testing, naming, comments and consistency factor into the process. With this understanding, we then consider how best to relay this feedback to the code author in the most effective means possible. Finally, we discuss the importance of small merge requests and how the review process can change as the team grows.
Outline
- 00:00:25 - Introduction
- 00:03:15 - The importance of feedback within the SDLC
- 00:04:20 - What are the different forms of feedback?
- 00:05:15 - What is a code review?
- 00:08:16 - What do you look for within a review?
- 00:14:59 - The why, the what, and the how…
- 00:16:34 - What is code complexity and over-engineering?
- 00:21:35 - How does testing guide your review?
- 00:26:34 - What is meant by a good name?
- 00:33:35 - How do you relay feedback to the code author?
- 00:39:29 - Comment labeling strategies, based on severity
- 00:45:20 - The importance of a small merge request
- 00:48:35 - How fast should code be reviewed?
- 00:51:56 - How has this process changed due to team growth?
- 00:54:23 - Additional advice for the feedback process