LOGIN | REGISTER NOW | SUBSCRIBE
 
Print

Making the case for code review


By David Rubinstein


 David Rubinstein
Email
April 20, 2010 —  (Page 1 of 3)
The practice of code review is a lot like going to the gym: You know it’s good for you, but you don’t always do it.

A study by Forrester Research released at the end of March found that code review processes are often ad hoc in nature and have not kept pace with the increasing complexity of software development. Further, the study found that organizations do not make the time to institute code review as a formal part of the development process.

Gwyn Fisher, CTO at code analysis software company Klocwork, which sponsored the Forrester study, cited a number of factors working against formalized code review. “It’s hard to motivate people to do something that’s not pleasant," he said. "It’s potentially devastating for the person whose code is being reviewed, and it’s annoying for an architect to get pulled away from his tasks to participate in a review. Even getting people to buy into a process that may or may not find something is hard to do.”

The benefits of code review are well understood; finding bugs earlier in the life cycle was the top reason given by 84% of the 159 IT professionals surveyed who are directly involved in their organizations’ development and code review processes. Other benefits included the sharing of best practices and highlighting new techniques, as well as the encouragement of refactoring and code simplification.

But the survey respondents said the biggest challenge they face is finding enough time to prepare for a review. Part of the reason is that in development, it’s hard to predict when code will be ready to review, the study found.

“What we see is that there will always be hesitancy to believe in the idea that if you invest time now, you can save it later,” said Gregg Sporar of code review software provider Smart Bear Software, now a division of testing company AutomatedQA. “People say they won’t get any real value, that code review is too cursory and you won’t find the really interesting stuff. Our response to them is, ‘Maybe you’re not doing it right.’ ”


Related Search Term(s): code review

Pages 1 2 3 


Share this link: http://sdt.bz/34294
 
Most Read  Latest News  Resources
SAP unveils SAP HANA platform innovations for Big Data and spatial processing
Features include smart data access and expanded cloud deployment options
Alteryx raises $12 million to put Big Data analytics in the hands of all business analysts
Quest founder's firm, Toba Capital, selects Alteryx as its first analytics investment
Google I/O kicks off
Developers get new APIs and tools, and the Go language hits version 1.1
Jelastic launches new version of its Java and PHP hosting platform
Jelastic today announced the launch of a new version of its ultra-scalable cloud hosting platform
Digg!  Digg
Reddit  Reddit
Slashdot  Slashdot
Share on facebook  Facebook
Share on Twitter  Twitter



Comments


04/21/2010 11:15:44 AM EST

Second the point on making it a milestone. If it's not a part of an acceptance process, it will invariably get pushed to the side. Engineers have a lot on their plate and the pressure to deliver more in less time will force them to focus just on urgent issues.

United StatesAndrew Yang


close
NEXT ARTICLE
SD Times Blog: Code Hero, how to flambé $170,000+ in Kickstarter funding, and the need for an Office Square...
A mystery over a Kickstarter project gives numerous lessons on how to keep your creditors happy and hopeful Read More...
 
 
 




News on Monday  more>>
Android Developer News  more>>
SharePoint Tech Report  more>>
Big Data TechReport  more>>

   
 
 

 


Download Current Issue
MAY 2013 PDF ISSUE

Need Back Issues?
DOWNLOAD HERE

Want to subscribe?