Making Code Review Work in a Small Team

For years only a handful of us wrote code and almost nothing was reviewed; whoever finished merged. Then one database field change broke three modules and a client found it first.

A lightweight process

All changes go through a branch and need one colleague's approval before merging. Even ten minutes counts.

Focus on three things: edge cases, error handling and impact on existing features. Formatting belongs to tooling.

Split any change above four hundred lines. Review quality drops sharply with size.

Two habits

Write why the change exists, not just what changed. Three months later the motivation matters more than the diff.

Phrase comments as questions, such as 'what happens under concurrency here'. It lands better than a verdict.

Review costs twenty minutes a day and saves a late-night rollback. That trade works in any team.