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Modern Code Review: A Case Study at Google

Sadowski, Caitlin ; Söderberg, Emma LU orcid ; Church, Luke ; Sipko, Michal and Bacchelli, Alberto (2018) ICSE'18: 40th International Conference on Software Engineering p.181-190
Abstract
Employing lightweight, tool-based code review of code changes (aka modern code review) has become the norm for a wide variety of open-source and industrial systems. In this paper, we make an exploratory investigation of modern code review at Google. Google introduced code review early on and evolved it over the years; our study sheds light on why Google introduced this practice and analyzes its current status, after the process has been refined through decades of code changes and millions of code reviews. By means of 12 interviews, a survey with 44 respondents, and the analysis of review logs for 9 million reviewed changes, we investigate motivations behind code review at Google, current practices, and developers' satisfaction and... (More)
Employing lightweight, tool-based code review of code changes (aka modern code review) has become the norm for a wide variety of open-source and industrial systems. In this paper, we make an exploratory investigation of modern code review at Google. Google introduced code review early on and evolved it over the years; our study sheds light on why Google introduced this practice and analyzes its current status, after the process has been refined through decades of code changes and millions of code reviews. By means of 12 interviews, a survey with 44 respondents, and the analysis of review logs for 9 million reviewed changes, we investigate motivations behind code review at Google, current practices, and developers' satisfaction and challenges. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Software Engineering, Software notations and tools, Software maintenance tools
host publication
2018 ACM/IEEE 40th International Conference on Software Engineering: Software Engineering in Practice 181 2
pages
181 - 190
publisher
Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
conference name
ICSE'18: 40th International Conference on Software Engineering
conference location
Gothenburg, Sweden
conference dates
2018-05-27 - 2018-06-03
external identifiers
  • scopus:85049691666
ISBN
978-1-4503-5659-6
DOI
10.1145/3183519.3183525
language
English
LU publication?
no
id
0d6ac3f5-152e-4acc-93b1-4baaf701ac87
date added to LUP
2018-03-07 11:17:05
date last changed
2022-05-03 01:26:57
@inproceedings{0d6ac3f5-152e-4acc-93b1-4baaf701ac87,
  abstract     = {{Employing lightweight, tool-based code review of code changes (aka modern code review) has become the norm for a wide variety of open-source and industrial systems. In this paper, we make an exploratory investigation of modern code review at Google. Google introduced code review early on and evolved it over the years; our study sheds light on why Google introduced this practice and analyzes its current status, after the process has been refined through decades of code changes and millions of code reviews. By means of 12 interviews, a survey with 44 respondents, and the analysis of review logs for 9 million reviewed changes, we investigate motivations behind code review at Google, current practices, and developers' satisfaction and challenges.}},
  author       = {{Sadowski, Caitlin and Söderberg, Emma and Church, Luke and Sipko, Michal and Bacchelli, Alberto}},
  booktitle    = {{2018 ACM/IEEE 40th International Conference on Software Engineering: Software Engineering in Practice 181 2}},
  isbn         = {{978-1-4503-5659-6}},
  keywords     = {{Software Engineering; Software notations and tools; Software maintenance tools}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  pages        = {{181--190}},
  publisher    = {{Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)}},
  title        = {{Modern Code Review: A Case Study at Google}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3183519.3183525}},
  doi          = {{10.1145/3183519.3183525}},
  year         = {{2018}},
}