Understanding and Mitigating Code Review Anxiety

Authors: Carol Lee, PhD & Cat Hicks, PhD

Anxiety about giving and receiving code reviews has been documented as a common occurrence that leads to developers avoiding code reviews by procrastinating and limiting their cognitive engagement with them. This avoidance not only increases anxiety in the long term, but also prevents developers, their teams, and their organizations from accessing the technical and sociocognitive benefits of effective and efficient code reviews.

However, software research has not yet empirically examined code review anxiety, and from this, tractable intervention targets and strategies for mitigating code review anxiety. In this study, we present an empirical framework for understanding the factors maintaining and exacerbating code review anxiety. Utilizing a randomized waitlist control trial, we also developed and tested the effectiveness of a single-session cognitive-behavioral workshop intervention. 

Our results show evidence that positive impact can be obtained from a brief intervention, and suggest code review anxiety can be successfully mitigated by targeting developers’ cost bias, anxiety self-efficacy, and self-compassion. 

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