How can we understand and mitigate Code Review Anxiety for Software Developers?
Summary
Feeling anxious about giving and receiving code reviews is a common, widely-documented experience for software developers. This experience is called Code Review Anxiety. Code Review Anxiety is characterized by a fear of judgment, criticism, and negative evaluation, and it can lead software developers to engage in a variety of avoidance behaviors, such as avoiding code reviews, engaging in "rubber stamping", or procrastinating in opening and reviewing pull requests, among other things.
Across a series of projects from the Developer Success Lab led by Dr. Carol S. Lee (I was the supporting author), we contribute:
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An empirical framework for understanding the factors maintaining and exacerbating Code Review Anxiety
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A novel, empirically tested intervention which shows effectiveness in reducing Code Review Anxiety
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The Code Review Anxiety Workbook (authored by Kristen Foster-Marks and Dr. Carol S. Lee), a science-backed resource for software practitioners to work through their own code review anxiety.