Code Review Cycles

DEFINITION

Code review cycles measure how frequently pull requests are reviewed and updated before being merged. High counts of review cycles indicate that the original code and subsequent updates did not meet expectations. This may be due to poor code quality and/or unclear or shifting project requirements.

HOW IT’S MEASURED

A review cycle is review followed by any subsequent code change (commit or merge). For example: 

1. A pull request that is opened, but not reviewed, does not have any review cycles.
2. An approval followed by merging a branch is one review cycle.
3. A comment followed by two commits is one review cycle.