From 43f6554813d2e484d48653e113d1898e140c3a50 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: "J. Ryan Stinnett" Date: Fri, 13 Mar 2020 14:38:04 +0000 Subject: [PATCH] Add review policy doc This documents various attributes of our overall review policy from code, design, and product perspectives. Fixes https://github.com/vector-im/riot-web/issues/12614 --- docs/review.md | 67 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 67 insertions(+) create mode 100644 docs/review.md diff --git a/docs/review.md b/docs/review.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000000..ebe79588f6f --- /dev/null +++ b/docs/review.md @@ -0,0 +1,67 @@ +# Review Guidelines + +The following summarises review guidelines that we follow for pull requests in +Riot Web and other supporting repos. These are just guidelines (not strict +rules) and may be updated over time. + +## Code Review + +When reviewing code, here are some things we look for and also things we avoid: + +### We review for + +* Correctness +* Performance +* Accessibility +* Security +* Comments and documentation where needed +* Sharing knowledge of different areas among the team +* Ensuring it's something we're comfortable maintaining for the long term + +### We should avoid + +* Style nits that are already handled by the linter +* Dramatically increasing scope + +### Good practices + +* Use empathetic language + * See also [Mindful Communication in Code + Reviews](https://kickstarter.engineering/a-guide-to-mindful-communication-in-code-reviews-48aab5282e5e) + and [How to Do Code Reviews Like a Human](https://mtlynch.io/human-code-reviews-1/) +* Authors should prefer smaller commits for easier reviewing and bisection +* Reviewers should be explicit about required versus optional changes + * Reviews are conversations and the PR author should feel comfortable + discussing and pushing back on changes before making them +* Core team should lead by example through their tone and language +* Take the time to thank and point out good code changes +* Using softer language like "please" and "what do you think?" goes a long way + towards making others feel like colleagues working towards a common goal + +### Workflow + +* Avoid force pushing to a PR after first round of review +* Use merge commits when landing +* PR author merges after review (assuming they have write access) +* Assign issues only when in progress (don’t overly assign things so it’s clear + that anyone on the team can pick up) + +## Design and Product Review + +We want to ensure that all changes to Riot fit with our design and product +vision. We often request review from those teams so they can provide their +perspective. + +In more detail, our usual process for changes that affect the UI or alter user +functionality is: + +* For changes that will go live when merged, always flag Design and Product + teams as appropriate +* For changes guarded by a feature flag, Design and Product review is not + required (though may still be useful) since we can continue tweaking + +As it can be difficult to review design work from looking at just the changed +files in a PR, authors should be prepared for Design and / or Product teams to +request a link to an ad-hoc build of Riot (hosted anywhere) that can be used for +the review. In the future, we [hope to automate +this](https://github.com/vector-im/riot-web/issues/12624) for every PR.