The Importance of Code Review
Did you know? In a Smartbear State Code Review survey 2020, 24% of the respondents indicated that the best way to improve code quality is via code reviews. For three years straight, the survey results have indicated the same.
Smartbear State of Code Review 2020 source
Code reviews - the practice of analyzing software code manually or via automated tools to find bugs and inconsistencies is a huge part of SDLC (software development lifecycle). One developer's code is reviewed by other developers before it's added to the current codebase.
Code reviews ensure that the code is bug-free, properly formatted, and stable. Peer code reviews also help developers work more efficiently and improve their relationships with each other.
So, how important is code review?
Code reviews are an integral part of the software development process for several reasons. It's a methodology that offers the client and the development team an opportunity to get clarity on the project and its requirements. The development team can verify whether the software is developed as per the requirements, and make the necessary changes before it is released into the market.
According to a survey report by Tidelift, developers spend about 32% percent of their time writing code and improving the existing code. The rest is divided between meetings (23%), code maintenance (19%), testing (12%), security issues (4%), and others (9%).
Tidelift Managed Open-source Survey Results 2019 (source)
Why is Code Review Important?
From optimizing code quality to eliminating technical debt, code reviews are important for any development team. Here are a few main reasons why a code review is important:
They improve the productivity of the development team, both in terms of time and cost. Conducting code reviews earlier is found to be cost-effective, as bugs and inconsistencies are identified and optimized at the earlier stage. The longer you take to rectify a bug, the more costly it will incur.
The process of reviewing software code helps the development team in both the defect detection process as well as defect prevention process.
Reviews help developers find and eliminate inadequacies.
Going through the code frequently leads to a lower error rate and system downtime.
Finally, the code review process reduces the time taken for software documentation.
Improve Your Codebase with Code Reviews
In software programming, making mistakes is not only acceptable but is also an opportunity to learn and grow. However, it’s only useful when you successfully find and eliminate the bugs before it goes into production. For years, code reviews have remained the most trusted way of improving code quality. If you don’t currently conduct code reviews then there’s no better time than today.
