Code Reviews… a nesessary evil.

Ever wonder how companies get quality software out on time? Structure. That’s how. There is a development manager that has provided “Structure” to his department. Whether the developers like it or not, they know the rules of the game and are forced (through influence) to play by them.

One of the rules of developing quality code is to make sure code is being reviewed. This has many benefits that might be overlooked at first glance. In my experience, developers are proud individuals, certainly of their code. If they know someone else is going to review it and judge it, in most cases they will put in just a bit of extra effort. It will keep them from cutting corners under the pressure of an approaching deadline. Also, it gives other developers a chance to learn by reading someone else’s code. To be fair, there are some disadvantages, too. Time. This is the critical piece to any software project. As soon as someone says I need some application to do this thing, the clock starts ticking. From that point on, the customer is trying to get the software built as fast as possible with as much quality as can be delievered. These two objectives can seem to be in conflict depending on how you look at it.

I have been in many software organizations and have seen code reviews done many different ways. Some I liked and some no one liked. Based on my experience, I have a way to implement code reviews that has worked for me in the past and I feel is timely and effective at the same time. Email, Code Review repository, and the Enforcer.

Start with a Coding Standards document. This is obviously the yardstick against which all code will be measured. There are great examples on the internet regardless of the development language. Next step is to make sure your lead developers agree to the standards and believe they are important, as they will be the ones initially mentoring the other developers. Thirdly, start by handing out small coding assignments. With more departments moving to an Agile methodology this is becoming easier. The next critical step is that the developer understands that, for the assignment to be complete, they must have a peer fill out the Code Review form and upload it to the repository. Make sure this peer is different for each assignment so they don’t get into cahoots. By making it a responsibility of the developer, it assigns ownership of their work. Finally, let it be known that these forms and the code will be reviewed at random by the “BIG BOSS.” Remember the purpose is to get quality code. I encourage you *not* to assign penalties to the number of comments on the Code Review form. This is an opportunity for other developers to learn and to put just enough pressure to keep lazy developers from being lazy. The Big Boss is anyone with a technical background whom the developers respect. The Big Boss can be anyone: the Senior Lead Developer, Software Architect, or the Development Manager (that’s my favorite). Just make it someone who can review a form, some code, and provide feedback. With this in place, all you have to do is follow up and make sure the forms are being filled out and saved to the repository.

People under pressure tend to look for short-cuts. Follow up and make sure the reviews and corrections are happening by having the Big Boss speak publicly (and positively) about someone’s code. This will provide evidence to the developers that someone is reviewing these and their ownership is being associated with it, be it the developer or the reviewer.

Once the developers get used to having their code reviewed, it will be as normal as having their code compile, delivering successful unit tests, and eating at their desk.

Who in your department is working this weekend?

There are times when I hear this on a Thursday or Friday from my manager’s boss.  I chuckle on the inside, knowing this is due to poor planning or poor management.  I think back to when I was managing a developement department and had to motivate my team to work extra (weekends) to meet company goals.  Today, fewer and fewer managers are getting true mentorship from their boss or their boss’s boss.  Well, before I go down the road of the things I have seen from jr. managers (experience makes them jr. not age), let me share with you how to motivate your team (department) to work extra for the company (corrections, employees work for their manager or their manager’s boss never for “The Company”).

In my experience there are two ways to motivate your team, either through influence or power.  Motivating through influence is much tougher, however you get better results and your employees feel better about making the extra effort.  Almost anyone can motivate through power, although your employees resent doing the extra work and it shows in the results they produce.  Let’s say you’re company is one of these cutting back due to the economy.  The first thing the employee is going to ask when you ask them to work late or their weekends is, “what’s in it for me”?  And that’s a valid question.  Because, what you’re really asking them to do is put their job/company interests ahead of their family, friends, hobbies, etc.  If you are choosing to motivate through influence make no mistake, when you ask them to work extra, that is what you’re really saying.  The first thing as a manager is to acknowledge that this is what you’re asking.  Get it out in the open so your employees know that you care about the activities they will be giving up to help the company (you the manager) meet their goals.  Note: Don’t go to the well here to often or your employees will lose faith in your management ability and have this conversation at least a week before you require the extra work.  Second, discuss the incentives.  Find out what motivates individual employees and talk about what the company is offering.  You might be surprised what your employees find valuable, public acknoledgement, presenting, leading a new effort, you never know until you ask.  If the company is in a financial strangle hold, maybe the only thing they can offer is compensation time.  Now, if you’re one of those people saying, “they should be lucky to have a job”.  Think again!  I monitor a local job board and I see fifty technical job postings a month, at least fifteen a month for my skill set.  That’s plenty of potiential jobs to motivate even the non-lookers to look for a new gig.  And please don’t be one of those people who say, “you should do the company right”.  This not the era of my Grandfather’s where companies took care of their employees, so let’s just leave it at that.

Whatever it is your company can offer to give back to the employee for the employee giving their time to the company in advance, make a point of creating an agreement with your employees.  It works something like this.  If compensation time is what your company is offering to its IT folks to help get projects back on track then sit down with each employee and be clear about what it is the company requires from them.  Also, have the employee schedule with you (the manager) when they want to take their compensation time.  Is it ever Friday off for the next four weeks, or four extra days over a given holiday?  Whatever it is, accept it and put it on your calendar, so you know when they will be out.  When I did this, most of my employees just added to their Christmas holiday.  Note: Never, never, never buy an employee’s vacation, compensation time, or scheduled time off, it sets a bad president and gives the wrong message.  It is also the biggest red flag of poor management.  I’ll blog on replaceable employees in another post.  By scheduling the time the employee is going to take, this does two things to facilitate an angreement.  First, it specifies hard deliverables and second, it details the compensation time with dates.  The scheduling is important because, like most IT shops (and other departments) software deliverables are always needed yesterday making most things an emergency.  When you’re working on a project that pushes enhancements and fixes to production servers every month, there is no good time to take a vacation, compensation time, and you can forget training.  You’re employees know this and they feel the pressure to work hard for you and the company.  It is up to you as a good manager to protect your employees mental balance and honor the agreement, even if the employee wants to not use their compensation time when that time comes.  Make them take the time, they earned it (assuming they did) and they can always find something to do with an extra day or two.

You’re employees will appreciate you taking the time to schedule when the company needs the extra time and honoring the compensation time by putting it on your calendar and encouraging them to take it.  Building trust in your relationship with your employees will go a long way in being able to motivate through influence vs power.  Also, it will help you get to know your employess, what motivates them, how much they enjoy their job, and how connected you are with your team.  Don’t be afraid to push back on your boss if the incentive isn’t good enough.  You’ll be able to tell, put yourself in your employee’s shoes and try to sell the incentive to yourself.