Dealing with a code quality challenge in your team. How can you break through resistance to feedback?
When your team pushes back on code reviews, it's crucial to foster a culture of collaboration and continuous improvement. Here are strategies to ease the process:
- Establish a shared understanding of code standards to ensure everyone is on the same page.
- Encourage pair programming sessions to facilitate knowledge sharing and mutual respect.
- Frame feedback as a learning opportunity, emphasizing growth and collective achievement.
How do you handle resistance when addressing code quality issues? Share your strategies.
Dealing with a code quality challenge in your team. How can you break through resistance to feedback?
When your team pushes back on code reviews, it's crucial to foster a culture of collaboration and continuous improvement. Here are strategies to ease the process:
- Establish a shared understanding of code standards to ensure everyone is on the same page.
- Encourage pair programming sessions to facilitate knowledge sharing and mutual respect.
- Frame feedback as a learning opportunity, emphasizing growth and collective achievement.
How do you handle resistance when addressing code quality issues? Share your strategies.
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Paulo Gomes
Data Scientist | Machine Learning | Computer Vision | Deep Learning | LLM | RAG | Python
One angle to approach resistance is to highlight the tangible benefits of maintaining high code quality standards. A clean and consistent codebase not only reduces technical issues but also speeds up onboarding for new team members, improves collaboration, and minimizes the risk of bugs in production. On the flip side, ignoring code quality can lead to a snowball effect: increasing maintenance costs, frustrating developers, and eventually slowing down delivery. By framing code standards as a way to make everyone’s job easier in the long run, it often becomes easier to get buy-in from the team.
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To combat resistance to feedback on code quality, I promote a culture of growth and collaboration. I present feedback as a chance for improvement rather than criticism, highlighting its effect on team success and product performance. Encouraging peer code reviews and celebrating enhancements lessens defensiveness. By providing constructive, actionable feedback along with tools like coding guidelines and automated checks, I ensure the focus stays on improvement rather than personal critique.
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Promote Team Collaboration: Frame feedback as a shared effort to enhance the team's output, not personal criticism. Lead with Openness: Accept feedback on your own work to inspire others to follow suit. Use Objective Tools: Employ linters and automated checks to make feedback impartial and constructive. Balance Feedback: Pair suggestions for improvement with recognition of good practices. Show Impact: Highlight how quality code reduces bugs and accelerates development.
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I’ve been through this, and honestly, it’s all about shifting how feedback is seen. I don’t just review code but I start conversations. When feedback feels like collaboration instead of criticism, resistance fades. Involving the team in setting shared code standards helps too and people stick to what they help create. Pair programming is a game changer. It’s not just about fixing code but building trust and learning together. And feedback? I frame it as a way to improve the project, not point fingers. When it’s about building something better together, people welcome it, not resist it.
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Healthy team members can both give and take direction, as needed. A good leader would help the team understand how good coding practices preserve the code integrity longer, requiring fewer developers in the future to be required to maintain the same codebase. Sloppy code will require more. This translates into a lower cost for the company, which can mean higher wages in the future for the development team. Peer code reviews, and group learning provides this continual improvement.
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Breaking through resistance to feedback on code quality requires a strategic approach. Here are some steps to improve: Promote a shared vision: Emphasize how improving code quality benefits the entire team and project. Make feedback constructive: Focus on solutions and learning opportunities rather than pointing out flaws. Celebrate improvements: Recognize and appreciate efforts to adopt feedback and enhance code. Use tools for standardization: Introduce code linters and guidelines to set clear quality benchmarks. Encourage two-way dialogue: Create an open environment where team members can discuss feedback and suggest improvements. Lead by example: Demonstrate openness to receiving and applying feedback in your own work.
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Lidar com problema de qualidade de código é um dos assuntos mais delicados para serem tratados dentro de uma equipe, porque na minha experiência um código é com um filho, e nenhum pai ou mãe gosta que falem mal do filho dele. Portanto, como Gerente de Projetos de Desenvolvimento de Sistema, minha sugestão para os colegas, é que invista tempo em conhecer a personalidade de cada membro do time. Testes de personalidades como MBTI e DISC, com a ajuda do RH, pode ajudar a construir um a estratégia de feedback direcionada a cada perfil.
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By encouraging practices such as peer code reviews and group learning sessions, teams can continuously improve their skills and maintain high-quality standards. These efforts not only benefit the organization by reducing costs but also create opportunities for rewarding the team’s commitment to excellence.
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Encourage an environment where feedback is viewed as constructive rather than personal. Reinforce that the goal is to improve the product, not to criticize the individual. Lead by example. Be open to receiving feedback and show vulnerability by acknowledging areas where you can improve.
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