Wikimedia Developer Summit/2017/Better code review processes for reviewers

Wikimedia Developer Summit 2017 Session Notes Template

Session Overview
Title: Better code review processes for reviewers

Day & Time: Tuesday at 1:10pm

Room: Ventana

Phabricator Task Link:

Slides: google docs presentation

Facilitator(s): Andre

Note-Taker(s): greg-g, qgil

Remote Moderator:

Advocate:

Detailed Summary
etherpad notes

Purpose
Move towards agreement on improvements, approaches, way forward to most important aspects

Discussion Topics

 * Summary of suggestions:
 * Being friendly
 * Not starting with nitpicking
 * put all your nitpicking together, don't string it out over multiple reviews (if you can)
 * automate as much of it as possible in your coding styles checks in CI
 * Predictable approach
 * inconsistency across repos on review practices confusing (eg: Some abandon all WIP change >1 month old, others dont, etc.)
 * Architectural things first
 * Developers should contact the "responsible team" beforehand [for bigger changes]

Committee discussion:
 * what's the charter? enforcement of practices or standards setting? problem definition?
 * ensure the members have the needed authority

Meta code-review practices suggestion:
 * James F described some nice Gerrit features his team uses, these should be documented/shared more widely if they are deemed more widely useful

Action Items
 * Set up a working group (which might form a committee)
 * purpose: problem definition / scoping.
 * timeframe: 2-3 months? present finding and recommendations for next steps (probably something like "form a committee to work on the problem")