Code reviews in 2023: Navigating the evolution of software development

Code reviews have long been a staple in software development, and their importance has only grown over time. With the advent of new technology, the way code reviews are conducted is undergoing significant transformation. In this blog post, we will delve into the benefits of code reviews, the challenges faced by developers, and ways to make code reviews more efficient in your organization.

Benefits of code review

Code reviews offer several benefits to software development teams:

1. An excellent way to train and transfer knowledge among team members. Code reviews serve as an opportunity for team members to share their expertise and knowledge. This helps to upskill and train junior developers and fosters knowledge transfer between team members.

2. Increase the quality of code by catching bugs and improving code readability and code reuse. By reviewing code, bugs and issues can be detected and addressed before they reach production. This leads to improved code quality and reduced technical debt. The review process also helps to improve code readability and promotes code reuse.

3. Help to hold developers accountable by “defending” the code. Code reviews help to hold developers accountable for their work by allowing other team members to review and critique the code. This accountability encourages developers to take pride in their work and write better code.

4. Promotes team collaboration and communication, allowing developers to share ideas and knowledge. The code review process promotes collaboration and communication among team members. This allows for ideas and knowledge to be shared, and can lead to more efficient and effective solutions to problems.

5. Enhances the overall security of the code by detecting potential vulnerabilities. Through code reviews, potential security vulnerabilities can be identified and addressed. This helps to enhance the overall security of the code and reduce the risk of security breaches.

6. Increases code efficiency by improving performance and reducing duplication. By improving code performance and reducing duplication, code reviews can increase the efficiency of the code. This leads to improved software performance and a better user experience.

7. Helps to maintain a consistent coding style and standards. Code reviews help to maintain a consistent coding style and standards across the team. This consistency improves the readability and maintainability of the code.

8. Provides an opportunity for constructive feedback and personal growth for individual developers. Finally, code reviews provide developers with an opportunity for constructive feedback and personal growth. Developers can receive feedback on their work and use this to improve their skills and knowledge.

What are the challenges?

Code reviews can be challenging for several reasons:

1. Time-consuming: Code reviews can be resource-intensive, especially when there are a large number of developers and limited reviewers. This can result in a longer review process and consume more time.
2. Interpersonal conflicts: Code reviews can create interpersonal conflicts between the reviewer and the reviewee, particularly if the reviewer is not professional in their approach or if they are inconsistent in their feedback.
3. Disrupting development flow: Code reviews can disrupt the development flow and create context switches, which can be frustrating for developers who have to wait for someone to review their code.
4. Inefficiency: Code reviews can sometimes be inefficient, as the reviewer may spend time on minor details like code readability and coding standards instead of focusing on more important aspects like business logic, security, efficiency, and testing.
5. Resistance to feedback: Some developers may resist or be defensive about the feedback received during a code review, which can lead to conflicts and a negative review experience.
6. Unclear objectives: In some cases, the objectives of the code review may not be clear, leading to confusion and inefficiency in the review process. Code reviews are a critical aspect of software development that helps ensure code quality, maintain development standards, and improve collaboration among team members. Despite its importance, many organizations struggle to effectively implement code reviews due to its associated costs and the pressure to meet release deadlines. As a result, the full value of code reviews may not be realized, leading to subpar code quality and potentially missing important issues that could have been caught during the review process. This highlights the need for organizations to carefully consider the importance of code reviews and find ways to effectively integrate them into their development process, even in the face of cost and release considerations.

Improving the efficiency of code reviews

To improve the efficiency of code reviews, there are several things you can do in your organization:

1. Automation and tools can automate routine tasks in the code review process, making it more efficient and reducing the likelihood of human error. This includes integrating security and static code analysis tools into the CI/CD pipeline to check for security vulnerabilities and identify code defects before code review. Some common tools used for this purpose include linting tools, static code analysis tools, and security scanners. Using a linting tool like ESLint to automatically check code for potential syntax or style errors before code review. Or, using tools like Infracost that automate the process of reviewing cloud infrastructure costs, providing detailed cost reports and visualizations. It integrates with popular cloud providers and offers real-time cost analysis of infrastructure as code. Infracost helps organizations reduce cloud costs and increase operational efficiency, saving them time and money.
2. Company culture: Improving the company culture to encourage thorough code reviews and providing guidance on what to look for can lead to more efficient code review processes. A company culture that values code reviews and encourages thorough and constructive feedback can help improve the efficiency of code reviews. This includes providing training and guidance to developers on best practices for code review, creating an environment where developers feel comfortable giving and receiving feedback, and promoting a culture of continuous learning and improvement.
3. Commit context: Providing additional context by the reviewee in the commit message or by other means can help the reviewer focus on the most important aspects of the code, leading to a more efficient review process. This includes adding detailed comments in the commit message to explain the changes made, the reasoning behind them, and any relevant context, and providing links to relevant issues, tickets, or design documents to help the reviewer understand the context and the impact of the changes.

The future of code review

The AI revolution began with rapid advancements in machine learning and natural language processing, leading to the development of more advanced AI systems that could understand and generate human-like text. In November 2022, OpenAI introduced ChatGPT, a highly sophisticated language model trained on a diverse range of internet text, capable of having conversational and information-seeking interactions with users. ChatGPT marked a significant milestone in the AI revolution, offering a new level of interactivity and intelligence in language-based AI systems.

The introduction of AI-generated tools has revolutionized coding practices in recent years. AI-powered tools like Tabnine assist developers in their coding tasks, making the process quicker, more efficient, and less error-prone. These tools leverage machine learning algorithms to learn from code patterns and offer smart completions and suggestions that save developers time and effort. The integration of AI in coding tools is helping to enhance the development experience for developers and make coding more efficient and productive.

In 2023, the trend will continue, and we believe that the future of code reviews lies in AI-generated tools that can do part of the code review for you. These tools can reduce the annoying remarks on code readability, coding standards, and shift the initial review to your IDE with your AI assistant. This will reduce many of the remarks and interpersonal conflicts associated with code reviews. However, it is essential to leave the time of the expert to focus on the things that AI won’t be able to cover, such as business logic.

At the forefront of AI-powered code review tools, we advise organizations to stay up to date with the latest advancements in this field. As leaders in delivering AI solutions for developers, we continually add new tools to enhance workflows. If you’re interested in exploring how to automate code review and streamline other development team processes while maintaining privacy and security, please reach out to us.

About Tabnine AI for enterprises 

Tabnine is an AI assistant tool used by over 1 million developers from thousands of companies worldwide. Tabnine Enterprise has been built to help software engineering teams write high-quality code faster and more efficiently, accelerating the entire SDLC. Designed for use in enterprise software development environments, Tabnine Enterprise offers a range of features and benefits, including the highest security and compliance standards and features, as well as support for a variety of programming languages and IDEs.

In conclusion, code reviews are an essential part of software development, and the way they are performed is evolving rapidly. With the help of AI-generated tools, the future of code reviews looks bright, and we’re excited to see how it will continue to shape the way we develop software in the future.