Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Understanding the Experience of Code Review: Misalignments, Attention, and Units of Analysis

Söderberg, Emma LU orcid ; Church, Luke LU ; Börstler, Jürgen ; Niehorster, Diederick C LU orcid and Rydenfält, Christofer LU (2022) 26th International Conference on Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering, EASE 2022
Abstract
Code review is a common practice in software development and
numerous studies have described different aspects of the process;
its characteristics, the expectations on that process, issues around
reviewer allocation, and more. However, one aspect that has not
been studied to a large extent is the experience of the developers
in the code review process. This is unfortunate given the signifi-
cant amount of time that developers spend on this activity, where
problems that degrade developers’ experience on a daily basis can
create work environment issues.
In this paper, we present an extended analysis of an exploratory
mixed-method study where we focus on developers’ experience of
code review. We use... (More)
Code review is a common practice in software development and
numerous studies have described different aspects of the process;
its characteristics, the expectations on that process, issues around
reviewer allocation, and more. However, one aspect that has not
been studied to a large extent is the experience of the developers
in the code review process. This is unfortunate given the signifi-
cant amount of time that developers spend on this activity, where
problems that degrade developers’ experience on a daily basis can
create work environment issues.
In this paper, we present an extended analysis of an exploratory
mixed-method study where we focus on developers’ experience of
code review. We use semi-structured interviews to gather data from
two multi-national companies and conduct a follow-up survey. Our
results suggest that developers are frequently bothered by misalign-
ments in the code review tooling and process which is hindering
them in carrying out their code review tasks effectively. We present
an initial characterization of misalignments that may hamper the
developer experience. Based on our findings, we propose directions
for further exploration to improve the developer experience. (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
host publication
Proceedings of the International Conference on Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering (EASE)
publisher
Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
conference name
26th International Conference on Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering, EASE 2022
conference location
Gothenburg, Sweden
conference dates
2022-06-13 - 2022-06-15
external identifiers
  • scopus:85132409140
ISBN
978-1-4503-9613-4
DOI
10.1145/3530019.3530037
project
Gazing at Code Review(s)
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
1e05803c-af26-48c2-ae23-42c58e279df5
date added to LUP
2022-07-02 15:57:08
date last changed
2024-01-22 15:22:48
@inproceedings{1e05803c-af26-48c2-ae23-42c58e279df5,
  abstract     = {{Code review is a common practice in software development and<br/>numerous studies have described different aspects of the process;<br/>its characteristics, the expectations on that process, issues around<br/>reviewer allocation, and more. However, one aspect that has not<br/>been studied to a large extent is the experience of the developers<br/>in the code review process. This is unfortunate given the signifi-<br/>cant amount of time that developers spend on this activity, where<br/>problems that degrade developers’ experience on a daily basis can<br/>create work environment issues.<br/>In this paper, we present an extended analysis of an exploratory<br/>mixed-method study where we focus on developers’ experience of<br/>code review. We use semi-structured interviews to gather data from<br/>two multi-national companies and conduct a follow-up survey. Our<br/>results suggest that developers are frequently bothered by misalign-<br/>ments in the code review tooling and process which is hindering<br/>them in carrying out their code review tasks effectively. We present<br/>an initial characterization of misalignments that may hamper the<br/>developer experience. Based on our findings, we propose directions<br/>for further exploration to improve the developer experience.}},
  author       = {{Söderberg, Emma and Church, Luke and Börstler, Jürgen and Niehorster, Diederick C and Rydenfält, Christofer}},
  booktitle    = {{Proceedings of the International Conference on Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering (EASE)}},
  isbn         = {{978-1-4503-9613-4}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  publisher    = {{Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)}},
  title        = {{Understanding the Experience of Code Review: Misalignments, Attention, and Units of Analysis}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3530019.3530037}},
  doi          = {{10.1145/3530019.3530037}},
  year         = {{2022}},
}