Dr. Dobb’s | Code Inspection Book | September 17, 2006
Dr. Dobb’s | Code Inspection Book | September 17, 2006
The book summarizes the results of 2500 reviews of 3.2 million lines of code at Cisco.
“The book refers to a number of studies, some of which are relatively obscure. For instance, did you know that when reading a function developers repeatedly return to look at variable definitions? The implication is that short term memory doesn’t hold a lot, so wise teams will insist that all functions fit on a single page. Then it’s easy to glance up at the declarations without shuffling through paper or screens.”
“But engineers achieved the best results when inspecting at about 300 lines of code per hour or less. And after about an hour review effectiveness plummets. We get tired.”
“Expect to find about 15 defects per hour.”
“Authors who “annotate” and explain the code before the review have fewer mistakes. ”
“Best Kept Secrets of Peer Code Review,” is free (in US only, otherwise shipping rates apply) to order on-line at SmartBear. It’s a physical volume, not a PDF.
