In the world of software development, speed is of the essence. The faster you can merge your code, the quicker you can iterate, innovate, and deliver value to your users. However, there's a roadblock that often hinders this need for speed – the arduous process of finding the right reviewer for your merge request (MR).
Imagine this: You've just finished a brilliant piece of code that's ready to be integrated into your project. You're excited to see it in action, and so are your teammates. But before your masterpiece can join the project, it must go through the crucial stage of code review. Here's where the challenge begins.
In many development teams, finding the ideal reviewer can be a time-consuming task. You might need someone with expertise in a particular area, someone who's available at the moment, and someone who can provide insightful feedback promptly. The longer it takes to locate the right reviewer, the more your code languishes in review limbo, delaying the entire development cycle.
And let's not forget the frustration of starting a review with the wrong person, only to realize that their insights aren't quite what you needed. Backtracking to find another reviewer can be a difficult process, compounding the delays and creating unnecessary bottlenecks.
This challenge becomes even more pronounced as software projects grow in size and complexity, especially when multiple teams are involved. Coordinating reviews across team boundaries can be a logistical nightmare.
What's worse is that these delays often set off a chain reaction, leading to even more delays down the line, as other tasks and dependencies pile up, affecting not just the current MR but the entire project's timeline.
In this blog post, we'll introduce you to GitLab Suggested Reviewers. Suggested Reviewers is designed to streamline your MR workflow by ensuring that you connect with the right reviewers quickly and efficiently. Say goodbye to wasted time and welcome to a faster, more agile development cycle.
What is Suggested Reviewers?
Suggested Reviewers leverages a machine learning algorithm that analyzes the changes in an MR and a project’s contribution graph to suggest reviewers with contextual knowledge. It generates a list of up to five suggested reviewers. The list is presented in the Reviewers dropdown in the merge request sidebar, empowering the author to immediately select available reviewers. These suggestions are contextual to the changes in the MR. Additional commits to MRs may change the reviewer suggestions, which are automatically updated in the reviewer dropdown list.
It also will display if a suggestion is a code owner or if they can merge the changes,helping drive towards action.
Key benefits of Suggested Reviewers
Here are the key benefits of Suggested Reviewers.
- Time savings. Suggested Reviewers eliminates the need for guesswork or manual reviewer selection. The feature automates the process, saving time for developers.
- Enhanced collaboration. By connecting you with the right reviewers, Suggested Reviewers promotes collaboration and encourages knowledge sharing among team members.
- Improved code quality. Suggested Reviewers enables developers to have the most qualified individuals review their code, resulting in better quality and more reliable software.
- Reduced bottlenecks. Suggested Reviewers speeds up the review process and reduces bottlenecks by quickly identifying available and willing reviewers.
- Personalized suggestions. Suggested Reviewers considers individual expertise and past interactions, providing tailored recommendations.
How to get started with Suggested Reviewers
In this blog post, we've explored how Suggested Reviewers transforms the development lifecycle. It's not just about faster code reviews; it's about faster, more efficient, and more collaborative software development from start to finish.
Learn more in our Suggested Reviewers documentation.
