Ask HN: What to do if coworkers aren't reviewing my code?

1 points by brw12 6 years ago | 3 comments

I'm a veteran programmer -- not a 10x genius, but reliable and attentive.

My problem is that at my company, a nonprofit, there's a culture of not prioritizing reviewing others' code. That means my code, sometimes even urgent fixes to significant problems, can sit for a week or two before it's reviewed. Less urgent changes that should take a day or two of back and forth work and communication instead can many times that.

When I get assigned code to review, I make it a priority and try not to let more than a day go by without my at least responding with questions. This just makes sense to me -- after all, somebody is waiting on me to merge an improvement to the product!

The director of engineering tries to help by reviewing code himself, but he's overburdened and usually can't.

What's worse, there are fellow engineers I no longer feel comfortable being paired with on projects because the projects are sure to take far too long.

It's exhausting to be constantly spinning my wheels, trying to keep the context of my 6-8 open, unreviewed PRs fresh in my mind so I can move forward with my work.

I can't say my code is sparklingly perfect, but I don't have any reason to think it's particularly hard to review or unpleasant to review. My sense is that other people face the same situation, but don't mind so much. I know I produce more PRs than other people, and that I have higher expectations for our team productivity.

I've brought this up gently many times, but no one else seems to take it seriously. I also frequently offer to review others' PRs, and make sure to do a thorough and supportive job when I do.

What should I do? Keep trying to communicate about how this isn't working for me, and I think, for the organization? Try phrasing my needs differently? Look for another job?

subject4056 6 years ago |

It sounds like your team's culture is built around a small dev team with a high level of autonomy and trust, which hasn't scaled to a larger org. Now's the time to establish a new culture.

Unless you are Milton from Office Space, you're not the only one on your team blocked by process (If you are, Amazon has great deals on bulk accelerants). Put out some feelers for others in the same situation. Junior team members are fertile waters. Schedule a twice-weekly recurring meeting to review one another's contributions. With discipline you can review two twenty line changes in an hour. Homework is unlikely to work here, or you wouldn't be posting this. In short order you will not only be pushing changes, but establishing yourself as someone who Gets Stuff Done.

Above all, don't sit at your desk and weep bitterly that nothing is merged. Stand up for doing things; either your team will improve, or you won't need someone else to tell you it's time to move on.

cassalian 6 years ago |

I imagine that must be pretty frustrating considering that I get annoyed if someone doesn't check out my PR within a day...

IMO the best thing to do is exactly what you're suggesting: continue to lead by example, raise this as a concern (maybe frame it as lost productivity or something else a 'higher up' wants to optimize), and possibly consider other places to work (but know that the grass isn't necessarily greenr on the other side).

pnako 6 years ago |

You can't change other people. If they don't care about reviewing your stuff I don't see why they would care about you pushing your stuff either, so just do that. Keep the reviews open because it doesn't hurt.