What is a code review? How is this realized at SillSoft?

October 16, 2022

In order to achieve the best result of the team in the process of the software development certain routines must be established. One of them is a code review, which plays a very important role to ensure successful product development and is a key instrument in the development environment.

Code Review is a systematic study of source code. Basically, its function is to identify problems that may go unnoticed by the programmers and suggest alternative ways to solve them, thus improving the quality of the software. In fact, code review brings a number of benefits to the company and guarantees the development of better quality products.

In order to use code review correctly, it is necessary to adopt a number of practices, such as:

  • Using a wiki - a document consisting of all project-related activities.
  • Use checklists.
  • Use automation in conjunction with manual work to identify recurring patterns and errors.
  • Use the tools for process optimization.

Thanks to the Code Review system errors and bugs are fixed in time. In this way, the application enters the production phase and reaches the end user without contradictions. The development team also benefits from this, because all parties involved are technically upgraded. In addition, more effective cooperation will be achieved. Also, this knowledge sharing helps the team to find other solutions if there are problems in the development. Especially for those who are just starting out in the field of programming and don't yet have a very precise critical sense of code, this type of feedback allows for faster progression. So it gives great added value not only to the team but also to the company.

Another advantage is that responsibilities are shared and developers are not overloaded, which increases the overall productivity of projects.

SonarQube and what is used for?

Ensuring the quality of the software is fundamental, and to this end we can combine known practices with tools such as SonarQube.

SonarQube is a tool to ensure the quality of the source code. It performs several analyses and detects, for example:

  • Snippets of source code that can generate errors
  • Double command lines, preventing repetition of unnecessary instructions
  • Safety

These analyses meet quality metrics, which are configured in the tool itself according to some predefined patterns, but which are easily customizable.

The benefits of SonarQube:

  • Improving the quality of IT systems and applications
  • Better impact assessment
  • Greater visibility of software
  • Visibility of improvements and potential problems
  • Risk reduction in the implementation of the new requirements in development
  • SonarQube can be synchronized with other tools

How do we implement code review?

At SillSoft we have two options for code reviews:

  • Automated code review via SonarQube
  • Manual code review performed by other developers (usually senior developers, team leaders).

We use a console tool that allows, after task completion, to automatically assign it to the team leader.