Code reviews play a critical role in the software development process and their roots can be traced to the birth of software engineering. But while the practice of software development has changed greatly since its origins, the code review processes employed by most organizations have not.
Forrester Consulting recently surveyed 159 U.S.-based software development professionals to garner details on the state of today’s peer code review process.
This study found that, while the code review process is held in high regard and is often a mandated development milestone, the best practices and processes
being used to conduct code reviews have not kept pace with the rapid evolution of the software development process.
The study uncovered some troubling process gaps in today’s organizations. While the software development industry has seen the growth of outsourcing and geographically distributed teams, their code review processes do not take these practices into consideration when conducting code reviews. The Forrester report
noted the following problems: