Code reviews improve code quality and transparency by providing a discussion platform to foster continuous self-improvement. They reduce bug fixing and new feature implementation times by catching issues early. GitFlow workflow with merge requests enables code reviews. Developers start a feature branch, push commits to the central repository, and create a merge request for review. Reviewers test the code locally, check for bugs, quality, and style. They discuss improvements in the merge request before accepting it to merge into the main branch.

1. Code Reviews
Daniel Kummer.
Senior Software Engineer.
Namics AG, St. Gallen

2. Why?

3. Improve code quality and
transparency
Provide a discussions platform
Foster continuous
self-improvement
Reduce bug fixing / new feature
implementation time
Because we’d like to…

4. Time
Delta
Implementation
Bugfixing
Implementation
Bugfixing
Code
Reviews
Classic
Project Flows Compared
1.0
Progress over time of implementation,
changes and bug fixing phases in projects.
Start
Changes
Changes
1.1
Time

5. With?

6. Git-Flow
Workflow
+
Merge
Requests
+
=
Code
reviews

7. How?

8. Vader
Yoda
an example…
&

9. develop
feature-123
Vader starts a
new feature
git checkout -b feature-123 develop
Work on the feature branch and commit regularly

10. git push -u origin feature-123
origin
Periodically push feature
branch and commits to the
central repository
This is a backup and allows
collaboration
Subsequent pushes can be
done with git push only

11. Vader completes
his feature
Make sure the central repository
has the most recent commits
Start the code review by creating a merge request
git push

12. Select the feature as the source branch
Set the target branch to “develop” – we always merge
into develop after review

13. Check the target branch and choose an assignee.
Write a short description for the merge request.
Include links to all
relevant Jira tickets
Use /cc to add more
participants

14. Yoda receives the
merge request
All code changes are visible from the merge
request page
Locally checkout the feature branch
git checkout -b test origin/feature-123
You can also make your own changes which
will show up in the merge request.

15. How Yoda reviews
1. Run the project locally on an end device
2. Look for stack traces in log output
3. Test the implemented functionality and verify
styles
4. Review and discuss the code for:
- Potential bugs
- Clean and concise implementation
- Quality improvements

16. Discuss the feature
implementation in the
discussion section, vote
it up if you think it’s ok
Directly comment on
source code lines in the
changes section

17. The discussions
A
suggestion
I have
Good
point…
I’ve done
this before
and know
a nice
solution
Discuss the best solution
Make recommendations
Multiple people can review
an item
Change the roles frequently
Don’t blame – improve!

18. develop
feature-123
All is done - Yoda
accepts the request
The feature branch is merged
into develop and removed

19. After the discussed changes have been made
by Vader or Yoda and the feature is complete,
accept the merge request and remove the
source branch!

20. git checkout develop
git pull
If the automatic merge doesn’t work because
of merge conflicts, merge manually
git merge --no-ff feature-123
git push origin develop
1. Update the target branch (develop)
2. Merge the branch and push the changes
3. Remove the feature branch in gitlab

21. Q + A