Situational modern code review framework to support individual sustainability of software engineers

Abstract

Modern Code Review (MCR) is a socio-technical practice to improve source code quality and ensure successful software development. It involves the interaction of software engineers from different cultures and backgrounds. As a result, a variety of unknown situational factors arise that impact the individual sustainability of MCR team members and affect their productivity by causing mental distress, fear of unknown and varying situations. Therefore, the MCR team needs to be aware of the accurate situational factors, however, they are confronted with the issue of lack of competency in the identification of situational factors. This study aims to conduct the Delphi survey to investigate the optimal and well-balanced MCR-related situational factors. The conducted survey also aimed to recognize and prioritize the most influencing situational factors for MCR activities. The study findings reported 21 situational factors, 147 sub-factors, and 5 Categories. Based on the results of the Delphi survey the identified situational factors are transformed into the situational MCR framework. This study might be helpful to support the individual sustainability of the MCR team by making them aware of the situations that can occur and vary during the execution of the MCR process. This research might also help the MCR team to improve their productivity and sustain in the industry for longer. It can also support software researchers who want to contribute to situational software engineering from varying software engineering contexts.