What We Know (and Don’t) About Modern Code Reviews

This story was originally published on HackerNoon at: https://hackernoon.com/what-we-know-and-dont-about-modern-code-reviews. A deep review of modern code review research, its evolution, key themes, and the growing gap between academic findings and practitioner needs. Check more stories related to programming at: https://hackernoon.com/c/programming. You can also check exclusive content about #code-review, #code-review-research, #developer-workflow, #code-review-tools, #peer-code-review, #software-quality-assurance, #empirical-software-engineering, #software-engineering-research, and more. This story was written by: @codereview. Learn more about this writer by checking @codereview's about page, and for more stories, please visit hackernoon.com. This article traces the evolution of modern code review from formal inspections to tool-driven workflows, maps key research themes, and highlights a critical gap: how practitioners actually perceive and use MCR research. By pairing a systematic literature review with a practitioner survey, it surfaces where academic focus aligns—or clashes—with real-world software development practice.