Call me a devil. I did something kind of mean.

Call me a devil.  I did something kind of mean.

I had a code review (PR) up for review.  One of the approvers wanted some additional unit testing.  They were being kind and provided the solution.

Their solution used mocks--not inherently a bad thing. Without getting into too much technical details, it was not a good solution. The test didn't test anything because they mocked the function which contained the logic meant to be tested.

Here's were I became the devil.  I checked it in.  I wanted to see if anyone would notice.

No one noticed. The PR was approved.

Before we had automation and CI/CD delivery pipelines, I think code reviews had more value.  And even then I question the cost benefit.  Unless the approver, pulls the code, runs it, debugs it, does their own test.....they will not catch many mistakes.  My scenario above proves that.   These days, I think we are due some honest assessment of how much time is wasted on processes.

Rarely do any engineers have the time necessary to thoroughly evaluate a PR.  The solution is more complex than I have room here.  I think it starts with acknowledging we are wasting a lot of time through the countless re-iterations of getting a PR approved.

I'd love to hear your thoughts.