What Are The Code Review Best Practices Available With QA?
Key Takeaways:
- Code review is critical in software development, but it is often misunderstood or ignored due to a focus on validation testing.
- Neglecting code review can have serious consequences, highlighting its importance in the development lifecycle.
- Code review should not be limited to the production team; developers, QAs, and product managers should all participate.
- Understanding code review as a QA is critical, and this article aims to shed light on its significance and relevance.
- Best practices and checklists for code review, particularly during automation testing with Selenium WebDriver, are also discussed.
What are Code Reviews and the Purpose of Code Reviews?
Reviewing the code is a practice where the source code is split into small bits that are reviewed just before testing by the managers or seniors in the team. In Agile methodology, it is a technique often practiced. The main goal of the code review is to find errors, spot early bugs, and ensure that the best standards are followed by the code.
It can be referred to as a two-way conversation in which both the coder and the person checking the code learn from each other and delete any possible errors that can affect the product later.
Working in an agile environment, you can sometimes overlook the value of the process of code review. You may think that code review best practices would be time-consuming, particularly if you run short on deadlines. This is where it becomes all the more significant, though. The sooner you check the code and remove any likelihood of blockers or bugs later, the sooner you can produce the software as per the release phase.
It turns out to be more costly and time-consuming to identify vulnerabilities later in the release cycle or post-migration into development. This is why companies are now adopting a new Shift-Left research approach where you integrate testing right from the selection process of the client’s requirements.
Why Reviewing Code is Inevitable?
If you think code review tools are not needed as long as you’re testing, then the advantages described below can influence you to think differently.
Early Bug Detection
It saves a lot of time during the testing process when errors are found at a very early point in the development phase. The overall method is becoming much less costly. Automation testing decreases the effort and time expended on testing; there is also no greater gift than the human nature of recognizing and correcting other people’s errors.
Mentoring Juniors
Seniors do not have much time when a junior starts a project to tutor or instruct the junior about coding practices or educate them on how to do their job. The perfect solution for a senior developer in that situation is to spend at least 20-30 minutes checking the code written by the junior. Daily feedback will allow the new developer to improve his coding skills.
The Era of Agile
Most companies today adopt Agile methods and expect quality work to be delivered on time. The analysis of the code will enable the organization to produce a quality prototype that is free of defects and designed in compliance with standard protocols.
Team Cohesion
Regular discussion of the analysis brings the team together, makes them aware of the strengths and weaknesses of each other, and prevents them from getting lost in an isolated environment.
Compliance with Standards
The client also needs us to comply with a certain coding standard in the agile era. Fresher developers, however, are not always conscious of industry-standard coding. Regular reviews help make sure that the code complies with the rules and norms set by the stakeholders.
Code Reviewing vs. Testing
Code checking and testing are also best practices to be used in a software development lifecycle. In their ways, though, both are distinct and must not be mistaken. It would be wrong to assume that because you’ve checked your Software development life cycle or vice versa, you don’t need code review best practices.
Code review primarily evaluates code quality, adherence to coding standards, security vulnerabilities, and code clarity. Its goal is to ensure that the code is clear, follows policies, and serves its purpose effectively.
Testing, on the other hand, is used to ensure that the program's functionality and performance are correct. It entails identifying defects throughout the application's layers, determining whether they meet stakeholder criteria, and communicating any issues discovered to the appropriate teams.
While code review best practices can replace testing in small programs, they become essential in larger applications where testing alone cannot prevent breakages caused by code interactions. Code review is an important part of development because it ensures overall code quality and alignment with standards.
Finally, code review and testing work together to ensure code quality, while testing ensures functional correctness and performance. Both are necessary for producing robust and dependable software products.
Related Articles:
Code Review in Software Engineering
Application Security Testing Tools