Thu 18 Jul 2024 11:54 - 12:12 at Mandacaru - Human Aspects 2 Chair(s): Bianca Trinkenreich

Code reviews are an ubiquitous and essential part of the software development process. They also offer a unique, at-scale opportunity for teaching developers in the context of their day-to-day development activities rather than something more removed and formal, like a class. Yet there is little research on effective teaching practices for code reviews. We address this gap through a case study at Google: interviews with 14 developers revealed 12 patterns and 15 anti-patterns in code reviews that impact learning. For instance, explanatory rationale, sample solutions backed by standards, and a constructive tone facilitates learning, whereas harsh comments, excessive shallow critiques, and non-pragmatic reviewing that ignores authors’ constraints hinders learning. We validated our qualitative findings through member checking, interviews with reviewers, a literature review, and a survey of 324 developers. This comprehensive study provides an empirical evidence of how social dynamics in code reviews impact learning. Based on our findings, we provide practical recommendations on how to frame constructive reviews to create a supportive learning environment.

Thu 18 Jul

Displayed time zone: Brasilia, Distrito Federal, Brazil change

11:00 - 12:30
Human Aspects 2Research Papers at Mandacaru
Chair(s): Bianca Trinkenreich Colorado State University
11:00
18m
Talk
Can GPT-4 Replicate Empirical Software Engineering Research?
Research Papers
Jenny T. Liang Carnegie Mellon University, Carmen Badea Microsoft Research, Christian Bird Microsoft Research, Robert DeLine Microsoft Research, Denae Ford Microsoft Research, Nicole Forsgren Microsoft Research, Thomas Zimmermann Microsoft Research
Pre-print
11:18
18m
Talk
Do Code Generation Models Think Like Us? - A Study of Attention Alignment between Large Language Models and Human Programmers
Research Papers
Bonan Kou Purdue University, Shengmai Chen Purdue University, Zhijie Wang University of Alberta, Lei Ma The University of Tokyo & University of Alberta, Tianyi Zhang Purdue University
Pre-print
11:36
18m
Talk
Do Words Have Power? Understanding and Fostering Civility in Code Review Discussion
Research Papers
Md Shamimur Rahman University of Saskatchewan, Canada, Zadia Codabux University of Saskatchewan, Chanchal K. Roy University of Saskatchewan, Canada
11:54
18m
Talk
Effective Teaching through Code Reviews: Patterns and Anti-Patterns
Research Papers
Anita Sarma Oregon State University, Nina Chen Google
DOI
12:12
18m
Talk
An empirical study on code review activity prediction in practice
Research Papers
Doriane Olewicki Queen's University, Sarra Habchi Ubisoft Montréal, Bram Adams Queen's University
Pre-print