I wouldn’t say PR size is a bad metric, you usually just need yo read it the opposite of how sloppers do it, i.e. the most productive PRs are short and focused.
I’m working with a legacy codebase for the last few months, where a simple PR often ends up crossing a 1000 lines count due to testing and commenting, and I can’t stop apologizing for those.
Yet there are people out there bragging about 10x changesets.
I’m not saying it’s a good individual metric. In fact, applying individual metrics to developers (or most workers really), will only land you in Goodhart’s hell.
But as part of holistic operational health tracking, it’s a useful team level metric, as there is ample evidence that shorter PRs tend to result in less operational issues. And, of course, this is only valid if you don’t try to tie financial rewards to it, otherwise people will forget that PR size is a proxy measure for how easy changes are to review and rollback.
Yeah, I’ve been guilty of coming up with “cute” solutions that are extremely optimized and concise, but you needed to take a hundred times as long to work through what was going on.
Usually I would put an explanation comment, but sometimes a less optimized solution is the better option for readability sake.
Hah, if those pesky devs think that they can play the system by just rolling up the code into a single line they got another thing coming - we’re actually tracking PR character count, NOT LOC like some other companies!
I wouldn’t say PR size is a bad metric, you usually just need yo read it the opposite of how sloppers do it, i.e. the most productive PRs are short and focused.
I’m working with a legacy codebase for the last few months, where a simple PR often ends up crossing a 1000 lines count due to testing and commenting, and I can’t stop apologizing for those.
Yet there are people out there bragging about 10x changesets.
PR size is an awful metric. The bigger the PR, the less reviewable it is.
Yes, that’s what the comment said — smaller PRs are better.
PR size is still an awful metric. It should be within bounds but it should never be an actual metric. Treating it as a metric is an idiotic idea.
Then Devs focus on minifying the code into an unreadable mess
I’m not saying it’s a good individual metric. In fact, applying individual metrics to developers (or most workers really), will only land you in Goodhart’s hell.
But as part of holistic operational health tracking, it’s a useful team level metric, as there is ample evidence that shorter PRs tend to result in less operational issues. And, of course, this is only valid if you don’t try to tie financial rewards to it, otherwise people will forget that PR size is a proxy measure for how easy changes are to review and rollback.
Yeah, I’ve been guilty of coming up with “cute” solutions that are extremely optimized and concise, but you needed to take a hundred times as long to work through what was going on.
Usually I would put an explanation comment, but sometimes a less optimized solution is the better option for readability sake.
Hah, if those pesky devs think that they can play the system by just rolling up the code into a single line they got another thing coming - we’re actually tracking PR character count, NOT LOC like some other companies!
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