We’re doing this! A tool for code reviews is needed

Results of the survey about code reviews uncovered

Some time ago we asked you to help us in assessing the need for a tool for managing code reviews. We gathered lots of very valuable feedback.

Thank you very much for sharing your thoughts and insights about code reviews in your project teams.

This will help us to better adjust Codebrag to your needs.

In the meantime, we would like to share a summary of the responses with you. It’s really interesting how code reviews are perceived and done.

Please enjoy the summary and we will let you know once Codebrag beta is ready.

The survey was carried out online among 83 respondents. The aim was to check how many people do code reviews and how often they are done. We wanted to research the problems with code reviews and tools that are used to make the process easier.

The majority of people surveyed (55%) do code reviews every day or every few days. On average, 30% spend from 30 minutes to an hour on this activity, 14% from 1 to 2 hours, and 23% from 15 to 30 minutes. Combining the time spent on code reviews with the frequency adds up to a lot of time devoted to this activity by the average developer.

When considering the importance of code reviews, 75% of respondents stated that it is important or very important in the development process. On the other hand, the problem with code reviews declared by the majority (49%) was: ‘It has low priority and there is usually no time for it’. There is a visible tension between perceived importance and its priority in real life.

Other problems included: difficulties in making the process smooth (47%), the fact that they disturb work (38%) and that people don’t like them, as they are mainly about criticism (32%).

In terms of the process, in a great majority of projects (57%) code reviews are done after the project is committed. Only 30% of respondents use a tool for that, with Crucible being the most popular (41%), followed by Reviewboard (35%) and Gerrit (24%).

We also asked about the tool we are developing – Codebrag. We described it as ‘a super simple to-do list, which aggregates commits from your SCM and turns code reviews into a seamless process.’ The majority (54%) declared, that they would probably or definitely use such a tool.

We are happy to receive such feedback and many invaluable comments about particular features and role of the product. We will consider all of them carefully. Our idea is to make code reviews a pleasant experience, which can be managed easily. We will launch the Codebrag beta site soon, so stay tuned.

If you have any questions, or would like to simply say what you think about this idea – please share your comments below.