by Tega AkuruliCode Review Best Practices for Remote Teams
Remote work is now the norm for the majority of software development teams. While it offers flexibility and access to worldwide talent, it also imposes challenges on collaboration, communication, and code quality. Code review is one area where remote teams must adapt.
A sound code review process is necessary to identify bugs early, exchange information, enforce standards, and build team cohesion. But within distributed teams across cultures and time zones, it requires effortful mindfulness. In this article, we explore best practices for code review when working remotely with teams to have consistency, transparency, and teamwork.
Why Code Reviews Matter More in Remote Teams
Code reviews are not technical audits, they’re a tool for communication. On distributed teams, it’s that much more important because:
- Face-to-face collaboration is limited
- Confusion can linger without real-time clarification
- Asynchronous processes are the norm
- Code begins to become the de facto artifact of communication
Distributed teams thus must adopt habits that ensure code reviews are brief, respectful, and actionable so that they don’t turn into bottlenecks or miscommunication incubators.
1. Establish a Clear Code Review Policy
Every remote development team should have a documented code review policy setting out expectations, roles, and process. It should include:
- Who performs the code review (peer, tech lead, senior dev)
- Number of approvals before merge
- Use of CI tools and automatic tests
- Turnaround expected on reviews
- Coding standard and formatting guidelines
Shared understanding prevents back-and-forth and promotes faster, more consistent reviews.
2. Use Pull Request (PR) Templates
PR templates allow reviewers to understand the context in an instant. A good template must have:
- Summary of what the PR does
- Linked issue/ticket number
- Screenshots or GIFs (for UI changes)
- Test steps
- Checklist of what the developer assured (e.g., passed tests, linter, documentation updated)
This gives reviewers the information they need initially, reducing clarification requests.
3. Prioritize Asynchronous Communication
Remote teams work in different time zones. Align your code review process for asynchronous collaboration:
- Don’t get reviewers to jump on live calls unless absolutely necessary
- Comments and answers should be detailed, give enough detail so that reviewers can understand without a call
- Threads aid in organizing discussions around a particular line or issue
- Similarly, avoid constantly “pinging” someone on multiple platforms (Slack, email, GitHub comments).
Keep everything focused in the PR for the sake of clarity.
4. Automate What You Can
- Linting and formatting: Apply code using ESLint, Prettier, or Black tools.
- Unit tests: Ensure test suites are passed before merging.
- Security scanning: Employ Snyk, Dependabot, or SonarQube tools.
- Avoid wasting reviewer time on things machines can verify
It enables reviewers to focus on architecture decisions, logic, and code readability instead of spacing or bracket location.
5. Don’t Use Code Reviews for Personal Style
Code reviews should be civil and helpful, especially in a distributed setup where tone can be hard to grasp. Don’t:
❌ “This is bad.”
✅ “Try using a switch statement here, it could make it more readable.”
❌ “I don’t like this solution.”
✅ “Have you thought through what kind of performance impact this might have on big inputs?”
Create a culture of curiosity and learning with others something that’s not shaming. Always presume good intentions.
6. Create Review SLAs (Service-Level Agreements)
Procrastination can accumulate in remote teams. A PR stalled for days can delay entire features. Create SLAs for reviews like:
- Small PRs (< 200 lines): Checked in 24 hours
- Medium PRs: 48 hours
- Large PRs: Require a heads-up or pairing session
This helps manage expectations and enables timely progress.
7. Keep Pull Requests Small and Focused
Simpler PRs to review, test, and merge. Break large features into common sense chunks with feature flags or incremental development. Benefits are:
- Faster reviews
- Rollback is simpler
- Less reviewer burnout
- Easier to spot issues
As a general rule, PRs should do one thing effectively, be it to fix a bug, introduce a feature, or refactor a module.
8. Take Advantage of Review Integrations and Tools
Remote code review is made easier with the right tools. These are some of the platforms and tools worth checking out:
- GitHub / GitLab / Bitbucket: Inline comments on native code review
- Codecov or Coveralls: Show test coverage on PRs
- Slack/GitHub integration: Notify teams of new reviews needed
- Linear / Jira integration: Link tasks with code changes
Also have in mind Reviewable, Crucible, or Visual Studio Live Share for concurrent review sessions.
9. Promote a Culture of Feedback and Mentorship
Remote code reviews provide an excellent opportunity to mentor junior developers and share knowledge. Ask reviewers to:
- Leave helpful comments, not just fixes
- Point to documentation or blog entries
- Review questions rather than making demands
- And authors be receptive to feedback, don’t defend everything.
Foster growth mindset over ego. Reviews are about good code, not about winning arguments.
10. Document Learnings and Common Review Issues
If your team is consistently getting into the same review issues:
- Turn them into PR writer checklists
- Update your style guides
- Create internal docs or a “How We Review Code” doc
This builds common knowledge and reduces redundant feedback in the long term.
For remote teams, code review is the heartbeat of collaboration and quality assurance. By following these best practices for remote team code review, you can turn what might be a drag into a strength making cleaner code, faster delivery, and more effective team communication possible.
Adopting a thoughtful, empathetic, and structured approach to code review not only improves your software, it makes for a healthier, happier development culture despite time zones and distances.