Summary

In this episode of the Overcommitted Podcast, the hosts discuss the intricacies of pull requests, focusing on the reviewer mindset, crafting effective pull requests, and managing the review workflow. They share insights from Brittany's recent conference experience and delve into best practices for both reviewing and creating pull requests. The conversation highlights the importance of communication within teams, the impact of reviews, and the balance between thoroughness and efficiency in the review process. The episode concludes with a light-hearted discussion on pet peeves and positive aspects of PR reviews.

Takeaways

The impact of a review is more important than personal preferences.
As a reviewer, focus on unblocking colleagues and improving code quality.
Automate style checks with CI to streamline the review process.
PRs should be as small as possible to reduce cognitive load.
Include context in PRs to aid understanding for reviewers.
Set clear expectations with your team regarding review timelines.
Use PRs as a learning opportunity for both reviewers and contributors.
Document decisions and discussions within PRs for future reference.
Encourage a blameless culture around PR approvals.
Positive feedback in reviews fosters a supportive team environment.

Links

The Balanced Engineer Newsletter: Code reviews - A how to guide: https://archives.balancedengineer.com/archive/code-reviews-a-how-to-guide/
The Balanced Engineer Newsletter: Code reviews - Writing good PRs: https://archives.balancedengineer.com/archive/code-reviews-writing-good-prs/
The Balanced Engineer Newsletter: Code reviews - Managing review workload: https://archives.balancedengineer.com/archive/code-reviews-managing-review-workload/
Erika’s PR Template: https://github.com/eggyhead/obsidian-public/blob/main/templates/pr-review-note.md
Ben Balter: How I manage GitHub notifications: https://ben.balter.com/2020/08/25/how-i-manage-github-notifications/

Hosts

⁠Overcommitted.dev⁠
Bethany Janos: ⁠https://github.com/bethanyj28⁠
Brittany Ellich: ⁠https://brittanyellich.com⁠

Eggyhead: ⁠https://github.com/eggyhead⁠

Jonathan Tamsut: ⁠https://infinitely-fallible.bearblog.dev/⁠

Ep. 14 | Mastering pull requests

Overcommitted | Software Engineering and Tech Careers Insights