On 08/30/2012 10:59 AM, Chris McMahon wrote:
This crossed my desk this morning, it is a long and detailed (and honest!) account by an insider of Google's efforts to increase code quality and product quality. I think it's relevant to what we're doing at WMF, and what we might do in the future. http://mike-bland.com/2012/07/10/test-mercenaries.html
Thanks for the link, Chris. I read the piece, and a few insights seem especially applicable to us:
* participating in code review, even as a peripheral commenter rather than a key reviewer, gives a participant much greater understanding (and a better reputation) * sustained cultural & process changes come from a combination of automated tools, informal influence, training, propaganda :-), ambient information, clear expectations, and maybe orders from management ... and sometimes it takes a really long time * badges and levels and labels matter, and we should be careful about how we design and deploy them (related: https://blog.mozilla.org/nfroyd/2012/08/22/humane-practices-for-review-reque... )