Six tips to improve your code review skills

The article argues that code review can improve a codebase and align a team’s coding skills, but only when it is used carefully. It warns that reviews can hurt people, create conflict, and slow delivery if they are handled badly.

Reading notes

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• Test the branch locally and inspect the changes, because that supports smoke testing and can reveal architecture issues that are not obvious from reading the diff.
• Ask questions instead of writing blunt judgments, since the author may have a valid reason for the choice.
• Praise specific good practices when they appear, and avoid empty praise.
• Prefix comments with labels such as question, suggestion, or nitpick so the author understands the intent.
• Mark comments as blocking or non-blocking to separate merge blockers from minor preferences.
• Add explanatory comments or even a patch when a change needs more context, so the review can move faster.