Now Let's Review

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Incorporate these best practices in a software code review process.

It would be like researching and drafting this article, only to submit it without checking the spelling. And yet many organizations will spend time and money to support the production of software without a formal software review process in place to make sure they're getting something they can use.

It has been proven again and again: Software benefits tremendously from code review. The key for organizations is to embrace the process. Establishing an effective review process requires management commitment and follow-through, but it is well worth the effort.

Code reviews are primarily aimed at finding defects before testing. It is far more efficient to catch mistakes early. Once software reaches the testing stage or, even worse, the customer, the price to fix mistakes increases dramatically. Reviews won't catch every bug, but they can eliminate a significant proportion of them and save a lot of money. This alone justifies the cost of code review, but there are other benefits as well. Reviewed code is easier for multiple programmers to work on and to maintain. Reviewed code raises visibility and standards, encouraging best practices and discouraging bad habits. And reviewed code can improve morale as good code brings praise and recognition to the team.

Do it Often
Code needs …

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