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Why Review Code

Code Review is the single greatest way of noticing and killing bugs. It is well-documented that the earlier a bug is found the cheaper it is to fix. A Code Review software saves time in almost every aspect of the Code Review process.

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Roy Masrani
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© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
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76 views

Why Review Code

Code Review is the single greatest way of noticing and killing bugs. It is well-documented that the earlier a bug is found the cheaper it is to fix. A Code Review software saves time in almost every aspect of the Code Review process.

Uploaded by

Roy Masrani
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 4

Why review code?

Page 1 of 4

Why review code?

Code Review is the single greatest way of


noticing and killing bugs, increasing overall
understanding, fixing design problems, and
learning from one another.
--Graydon Hoare

Authors need editors to catch mistakes. It is human nature that one cannot adequately
proof-read one's own work. Authors of software need the same assistance as authors of
novels to achieve the goals of the software organization.

The purposes for code review are as diverse as the environments in which they are
conducted. However, almost all code reviews have these goals in common:

Defect-free, well-documented software


Software that complies with enterprise coding standards
Teaching and sharing knowledge between developers

Other objectives often include: maintainability, security, consistent end-user


documentation, adequate comments in code, complete unit tests, and scalability.

How code review works


A code review involves one or more developers examining source code they didn't write
and providing feedback to the authors, both negative and positive. Ideally the reviewers
are completely disengaged from the project they are reviewing as this maximizes
objectivity and ensures the code is readable and maintainable even by those not already
well-versed in that project. Typically the reviewers will have a standard checklist as a
guide for finding common mistakes and to validate the code against the company's coding
standards.

By Jason Cohen ([email protected]) © 2003-8 Smart Bear Software


Why review code? Page 2 of 4

Code review takes place during all stages of development, except with small projects such
as demos and experiments that are designed to be written quickly and probably thrown
away. Even during the final stages of development when everyone is trying to meet a
deadline, code reviews greatly reduce the number of regression bugs and ensure that
company coding practices are not abandoned.

Our code review software saves time in almost every aspect of the code review process.

Inspection of a 20,000 line program at IBM


saved more than 85% of programmer effort
by detecting major defects through code
review instead of testing.
--IEEE Trans. on Software Engineering,
SE-12(7):744-751, July 1986.

Finding bugs on the cheap


It is well-documented that the earlier a bug is found the cheaper it is to fix. Fixing a bug
in QA is more than twice as expensive as finding it in development. Just as we have
trouble seeing "obvious" mistakes in our writing, developers frequently make simple
errors that are easily and quickly caught by external review. In fact, a NASA study found
that code review detected almost twice as many defects per hour as testing.

A code reviewer will look for common bugs, especially those that are notoriously difficult
to find after-the-fact. These include proper thread synchronization, dealing with error
conditions correctly and completely, correct accounting for reference-counting and other
potential resource leaks, security problems, and ensuring that unit tests cover all code
paths, error cases, and limit cases.

Shell Research saved an average of 30 hours


of maintenance work for every hour invested

By Jason Cohen ([email protected])


© 2003-8 Smart Bear Software
Why review code? Page 3 of 4

in inspections.
--Software Practice and Experience,
22(2):173-182, Feb. 1992.

Ensuring maintainability
The expense of developing software is not just in its initial creation but in the ability of
developers to use and modify existing code in the future. Software is notoriously difficult
and expensive to maintain. This is especially true when a developer leaves a project and a
new developer arrives, but it is even true with a single developer looking back on code he
wrote six months ago.

Maintainability is generally achieved by code organization and adequate comments. A


person uninvolved in the project should be able to read a portion of code and understand
what it does, see the constraints and preconditions of its use and contextual information
(e.g. the author used a peculiar technique because of a bug in the OS). In addition,
software organizations often have coding guidelines ranging from whitespace conventions
to the maximum size of a function. A reviewer can provide the ignorance and objectivity
necessary to ensure these goals.

Learning and sharing


Every project has a host of unwritten rules and tacit understandings. This "institutional
knowledge" must be transmitted to all new arrivals on a project. By definition it is
impossible (and perhaps not even cost effective) to write down this information or to
convey it all in one sitting. The inductee must acquire this information in the first months
on the project, usually elicited from experienced developers when he does something
wrong.

Code review can facilitate the communication of institutional knowledge as it relates to


code written by the newbie. Experienced team members have the opportunity to impart
their wisdom and advice.

Software to facilitate code review

By Jason Cohen ([email protected]) © 2003-8 Smart Bear Software


Why review code? Page 4 of 4

Code review can be expensive to implement if the participants don't have the right tools.
Our code review software saves time in almost every aspect of the code review process.

By Jason Cohen ([email protected]) © 2003-8 Smart Bear Software

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