Enhancing Collaboration through Effective Pull Requests

Key Practices for Assignees and Reviewers

Pull requests (PRs) are the responsibility of both reviewers and assignees. These interactions are incredible opportunities to learn new things about concepts, ideas, and, most importantly, PEOPLE.
🌟 Here are the top 3 lessons I've learned for raising and reviewing PRs.

𝘕𝘰𝘵𝘦: 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘢𝘥𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘯𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘯 𝘱𝘶𝘭𝘭 𝘳𝘦𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘴 𝘢𝘴 𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘨𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘴.

𝗙𝗼𝗿 𝗔𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗲𝗲𝘀:
1. Raise Smaller PRs: Keep your pull requests small and manageable as much as possible. This makes the review process smoother and more efficient.

2. Provide Context and Documentation: Step into the reviewer's shoes and consider what they need to know to understand the feature, fix, or change you're proposing. Clear documentation is vital!

3. Always Review and Test: Review your work, asking whether it can be optimised performance-wise or readability-wise. Run tests to ensure your job meets the standards before raising the PR. ✅

𝗙𝗼𝗿 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄𝗲𝗿𝘀:
1. Be Helpful and Elaborate: Use PRs as a platform to collaborate and educate. Clearly explain any issues you find and provide supportive materials to help your colleagues, especially juniors, understand. 🌱

2. Focus on the Code, Not the Person: Your goal is to optimise the solution, not to critique someone's coding style. Keep feedback constructive and centred on improving the code and achieving the goal.

3. Encourage Open Communication: Foster an environment where PR assignees feel comfortable asking questions and seeking clarification. This helps in building a stronger, more knowledgeable team.

Any other points to add to this post? I'd love to hear your thoughts and experiences!