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How to Review Pull Requests Without Being a Jerk
Provide constructive feedback politely
Code reviews are a necessary evil of being part of a software development team. As a first quality assurance hurdle, their purpose is to check that your coworker’s code is up to snuff and conforms to your team’s standards. That can mean many things: Is it functional? Is it efficient? Is it correctly formatted?
By virtue of pointing out potential flaws in others’ work, code reviews are often taken personally. Some programmers feel attacked by comments criticizing their work when, in reality, you’re all on the same team trying to build something amazing. Here are a few things you, the reviewer, can do to reduce the chances of your comments being misinterpreted, thereby helping to maintain a good social climate within your team.
Ask Questions
Instead of pointing out a possible flaw in someone’s code, consider stating it as a question. The chances are all that’s needed is an extra comment explaining why it was implemented in that particular way. If that’s not the case, asking a question gives the author an opening for explaining their own shortcoming, thus encouraging them to think about a better solution and correcting their previous thought process. The best way to learn, as they say, is to teach.
