Introduction: The Realities of Small Teams

In our current client project (2025 maybe by the time you’re reading this, I’m already on another one), we’re a small but mighty team: a tech lead, a frontend developer, and me a Software engineer who also wears the Ops engineer hat.

Like many small teams, we don’t always have someone available to review our code. Sometimes our tech lead is busy, or only one person fully understands a particular part of the stack. That’s when self-review becomes not just useful it becomes essential.

This challenge isn’t unique to us. Many startups, open-source projects, and even internal enterprise teams face the same situation.

According to the SmartBear State of Code Review 2023 report :

47% of teams say code reviews are often delayed due to a lack of reviewers.

This aligns with what GitLab described as

“The Paradox of Code Reviews” the idea that while reviews are meant to speed up delivery through better quality, they often slow it down due to reviewer bottlenecks.

What is Code Review?

The term “code review” can mean slightly different things for each team. In general, a code review is the process of examining and evaluating code written by an author to ensure that it is:

Clean following quality standards and readable by others.
Bug-free though we always try to catch every bug, some may still slip through ✌🏼.
Secure checking for potential vulnerabilities.
Aligned with best practices which can vary by project or team.
Optimized for performance making sure it runs efficiently.

Typically, a code review happens when someone requests feedback on their code (for example, through a Pull Request). Remember, the code or feature should be complete (meeting the “definition of done and I assist to that to not distrubt the reviewer before requesting a review)

In some companies, code reviews happen in two steps:

1. Within the version control system (e.g., GitHub, GitLab, etc.).
2. In a live session, which takes additional time beyond the initial review.

I really love these quotes

please thing deeper about them there is a lot of abstract information

“Code reviews are the single best way to improve code quality.”
Steve McConnell, author of Code Complete

“Treat every piece of feedback as a hypothesis, not an attack.”
Modern engineering culture principle (we’ll talk about this later)

Why Review Is Really Hard (Not in All Cases)

We all leave reviews at some point whether it’s for a product on an e-commerce site or in a shop to share our feedback. These reviews are important because they build trust and credibility for businesses and provide valuable input for improvement.

In software engineering, reviews serve a similar purpose. As mentioned earlier, code reviews help to:

Improve code quality Find defects early Ensure consistency and maintainability Identify potential coding errors, bugs, and vulnerabilities

This process is one of the best ways to collaborate and contribute with others on your team.

Why It Feels Hard 💭

Giving feedback in writing can be tricky. The author can’t hear your tone of voice or see your body language, so your message might be misunderstood, we are humain and review humain code that why comment must be review also (LOL) before committed. (I don't talk to give me AI review your code that another things)

A simple comment like:

“You forgot to close the file handle.”

might sound, to someone feeling defensive, more like:

“I can’t believe you forgot that! How careless!”

That’s why empathy and clarity matter so much when reviewing code your goal is to help, not to hurt.

How It Feels to Get Many Review Comments 😅

Sometimes, when you open your pull request and see 10+ comments, it can feel like this:

When you receive a lot of feedback, it’s normal to feel overwhelmed or defensive at first like,

“Wait... did I do everything wrong?”

But remember: reviewers aren’t attacking you; they’re helping you make the code stronger. Every comment is a chance to learn something new and grow as a developer.

Take a deep breath, go through the comments one by one, and you’ll often find that they improve your skills and make your work shine, let's show technique to reviews or to

Techniques to Review

Being a good reviewer is more than just finding bugs it’s about helping others improve while keeping the team’s standards strong.
Here are some techniques to make your reviews effective and kind:

• Start positive Begin by mentioning what’s done well before diving into suggestions.
• Be specific Point out exact lines or patterns, not vague comments like “this looks bad.”
• Ask questions, don’t accuse Say “What do you think about…?” instead of “This is wrong.”
• Keep the goal in mind Focus on code quality, not personal style.
• Be concise Long comments can overwhelm; clarity beats quantity.
• Use empathy Remember there’s a person behind that code.

Techniques to Receive Review

Getting feedback isn’t always easy especially when your code feels personal. But reviews are how we grow as engineers.

• Pause before reacting Take a moment to read all comments calmly.
• Assume good intent Reviewers are trying to help, not criticize.
• Ask for clarification If something isn’t clear, ask why instead of feeling attacked.
• Learn from patterns If multiple comments mention the same thing, it’s a learning opportunity.
• Thank your reviewers Gratitude makes collaboration stronger.
• Reflect Revisit your code after the discussion; it’ll make your next PR smoother.

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I don't care about conclusion because is make me fell like a write a post in bad social media or somewhere else, here we talk like a friend to share this why I need to finish with that

Remember: A great review process builds trust, teaches everyone something new, and makes the entire codebase better, and don't forget someday all those people will help somewhere (recommendation, freelance, future collab) be kind, be kind and .... be kind and smart.