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May 7, 2021Liked by Jeff Schwab

This is so common. Without org wide transparent OKRs, 360 reviews and trust, it can be hard to figure out who does busy work vs who is driving value. Usually collaborators on a project are the best judges of value - it's important that leadership sets the tone where the team self polices, so it doesn't turn into (s)he/they said vs (s)he/they said

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Absolutely. One form of minimized redundancy is software engineers specializing on distinct parts of the code base; as a consequence of which they are no longer qualified to review each other's work (to tell method from madness). If leadership doesn't set the right tone (as you suggest), engineers are liable to buddy up and rubber stamp each other's work. You scratch my back, I merge your PR.

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May 7, 2021Liked by Jeff Schwab

Ah yes. What I've seen work well to ensure quality and objectivity is the PR has to be approved by someone who didn't work on it or / pair on it. Ideally it's a round robin of some sort to ensure that as many members of the team participate in the review process. Jrs can learn best practices and Srs have to be more thoughtful on how they leave notes, write tests etc.

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