
Making the Switch: The Reality of Moving from Windows to Mac for Your Software Engineering Team
If you have a team of software engineers and want to move them to Mac, you will need to consider a number of things before you do so.
If you have a team of software engineers and want to move them to Mac, you will need to consider a number of things before you do so.
Here’s what’s new in our January 2023 Release Notes:
* Tables Columns Sorting Improved
* Reconcile Commits Count Between KPI Card and the Table
* Efficiency Tab Improvements and Efficiency KPI Cards Align
Here’s what’s new in our December 2022 Release Notes:
* Developing Improvements for On-Prem Data Processing;
* Improving Jira Data Connection;
* Aligning Metrics throughout the Application.
Though it is “best practice” for everyone, regardless if they are senior developers and engineers to participate in code reviews, few have formal training in conducting them. Defining the code review process and standards is the first step.
But, what if your team hasn’t defined this a code review process or if your team is just starting up? It could be a good idea to get a copy of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Standard for Software Reviews and Audits (IEEE 1028-2008). But, what if you don’t want to be that formal about it? The following best practices will go a long way toward bringing your team members to look forward to your code reviews, however often you conduct them.
Write a description of what the code change is about and provide everyone a checklist in advance with an email, handout, whiteboard, or other collaborative tools your team uses. This identifies what you intend to cover and can help keep everyone on task. Address non-related issues separately.
Include this as part of your checklist so everyone knows this upfront. You know your team members best, so if this is a regular occurrence, have a private talk with the likely offenders beforehand.
Another best practice is to schedule code reviews the same time each day, or the same day and time each week. This helps to prevent scheduling conflicts arising with multiple team members.
Take into account the size of your team and office. Engage to include everyone, even if it means having multiple meetings (led by different facilitators). Each meeting is best limited to 7-10 participants to provide everyone a chance to be involved. No one should be exempt, not even the most senior developers and engineers.
Use automated code review and software development analytics like Gitential to accurately track your process improvement metrics.
You are reviewing the code, not the coder. It is a best practice to give praise when the code conforms to standards, point out when it doesn’t. Praise effective solutions, offer better solutions and alternatives when they’re suboptimal. Take a moment to explain code defects and how they may impact other parts of the code.
IEEE 1028-2008 provides a comprehensive list of everything that should be recorded. At a minimum, keep a record of everyone who participated in the code review, when it was conducted, and the reasons why. This should also include a detailed list of what was reviewed, and what the results were (number of defects found and fixed, new solutions adopted, and other remedial, post-review, efforts to be taken).
If you’re curious about the cost of code reviews, there’s an app for that. Having a one hour code review daily equates to 253 hours per year. This correlates to a full college semester’s worth of OJT learning with the newest coding practices and tools. Many development teams use their code reviews for onboarding new team members and as a training tool.
The relative ROI, however, can be gained only if you use software development analytics to track developer performance in conjunction with actively managing technical debt. Over time, you should realize fewer defects, lower code churn, and greater productivity. You’ll be able to predict work requirements more accurately, miss fewer deadlines, improve your team’s job satisfaction and reduce turnover.
If you have spare time, Alejandro Lujan’s video provides a very good overview for software developers to do “Amazing Code Reviews: Creating a Superhero Collective” and was referenced in the betterDev Jan 27, 2020 newsletter.
Article updated: June 22, 2022
If you have a team of software engineers and want to move them to Mac, you will need to consider a number of things before you do so.
Here’s what’s new in our January 2023 Release Notes:
* Tables Columns Sorting Improved
* Reconcile Commits Count Between KPI Card and the Table
* Efficiency Tab Improvements and Efficiency KPI Cards Align
Here’s what’s new in our December 2022 Release Notes:
* Developing Improvements for On-Prem Data Processing;
* Improving Jira Data Connection;
* Aligning Metrics throughout the Application.