code review pyramid

src: The Code Review Pyramid - Gunnar Morling - 2022-03-10

Abstract

When it comes to code reviews, it’s a common phenomenon that there is much focus and long-winded discussions around mundane aspects like code formatting and style, whereas important aspects (does the code change do what it is supposed to do, is it performant, is it backwards-compatible for existing clients, and many others) tend to get less attention.

To raise awareness for the issue and providing some guidance on aspects to focus on, I shared a small visual on Twitter the other day, which I called the “Code Review Pyramid”. Its intention is to help putting focus on those parts which matter the most during a code review (in my opinion, anyways), and also which parts could and should be automated.

As some folks asked for a permanent, referenceable location of that resource and others wanted to have a high-res printing version, I’m putting it here again: code review pyramid

You can also download the visual as an SVG file.

FAQ

• Why is it a pyramid?
  • The lower parts of the pyramid should be the foundation of a code review and take up the most part of it.
• Hey, that’s a triangle!
  • You might think so, but it’s a pyramid from the side.
• Which tool did you use for creating the drawing?
  • Excalidraw.