On Thu, Jun 2, 2011 at 9:14 AM, Ariel T. Glenn ariel@wikimedia.org wrote:
Στις 02-06-2011, ημέρα Πεμ, και ώρα 08:31 -0400, ο/η Alex "Mr.Z-man" έγραψε:
On Thu, Jun 2, 2011 at 12:10 AM, Brandon Harris bharris@wikimedia.org wrote:
Your solution, as you've described it in the past, comprises "people do code review or orf wit' dere heads".
I know of no professional developer who has dignity who will work under those conditions. So it's untenable.
Wow, I picked the wrong career path. A whole profession where you're never asked to do anything that you don't want to do and there's no repercussions for not finishing assigned tasks on time. That sounds awesome!
-- Alex Z.
*sigh*
If code review is simply added to the list of tasks that must all be done in the same time period, it's not going to succeed. We need to make sure that time is allocated to it, which means less time spent on other things, and reprioritizing those other things appropriately, *and sticking to that*. That last bit is the hard part.
Most pgroammers that I've known aren't willing to put up with "here's more things on your plate, get them done in the same time frame or walk" for very long. It's also true that generally people are hired for jobs with given job descriptions, and shops that tend to pile on substantial tasks not in those descriptions without checking in with folks first, wind up with morale issues at best and people quitting at worst.
We ought to be able to avoid both of those outcomes. So why not do so?
Ariel
I agree about reprioritizing. Right now, CR appears to be near the bottom of Wikimedia's technical priorities. Sort of a "if you run out of other things to do" sort of thing. Then no one does it and it becomes urgent when it's time to do a release. Really, sticking to it shouldn't be the hard part, as long as the change comes from the top down (i.e. from the people setting the priorities). If people want to do code review, but are told that everything else is a higher priority, then it's doomed to fail. The hard part will be, initially, determining what things that are currently high priorities shouldn't be. Cutting anything is going to bother some people.
If CR isn't part of the job description for new hires, that's another thing that can be fixed by the people in charge.
-- Alex Z.