Erin Hamalainen - Code Review: The Missing Manual

Erin Hamalainen: Code Review: The Missing Manual

Code review is one of the most critical parts of software development—and yet, no one teaches us how to actually do it. No books, no courses, no best practices, no structured approach. Most of us just figure it out on our own, behind the scenes, without ever knowing how others do it.
In this talk, I’ll share my personal 4-step systematic approach to code review—a structured, repeatable process designed to catch more issues before production, save time, and make reviews actually useful. We’ll cover:

• The right way to approach a pull request before even looking at the code
• How to spot gaps that could cause future headaches (like missing tickets, vague PR descriptions, or lack of testing)
• Why a step-by-step approach makes your reviews faster, more effective, and less exhausting
• How to measure whether your review process is actually working

If you’ve ever wondered Am I doing this right?—or Is there a better way?—this talk is for you. Walk away with a concrete process you can start using immediately to level up your code reviews.