10 Tips for Better Pull Requests

[Walter Bright via Digitalmars-d]

On 1/16/2015 2:28 PM, Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
> On 1/16/15 2:17 PM, Walter Bright wrote:
>> I've worked at companies that would rate engineers based on the "bug
>> count". That ended very badly, it was so bad it was comical, how working
>> that number actually wrecked the quality of the product. I've seen
>> similar disasters with use of metrics on inventory minimization, and
>> others. Ever since it has made me deeply suspicious about basing quality
>> on such numbers.
>
> One anecdote is what it is. There is a lot of value in informative proxies. --
> Andrei
>

Informative is fine. Basing decisions on metrics unleavened by contextual 
judgement isn't going to work well.

It isn't just one metric. I've personally seen it multiple times with various 
metrics, and regularly read in the news about counterproductive results obtained 
by using metrics absent judgement. The "zero tolerance" policies schools have 
are a stellar example, where students get punished for chewing a pizza into the 
shape of a gun.

 
http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2011/12/daniel-zimmerman/zero-tolerance-idiot-of-the-day-principal-steve-luker/

Want more? Consider "work to rule" tactics used by unions.

   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Work-to-rule

I agree we have a problem with good PRs left twisting in the wind. Deleting them 
simply because they are old is worse.