Dave’s answer to this Quora.com question:
Some interesting points raised about how necessary this is for an MPV, and more importantly the notion that you have access to the source code at all times (that is critical).
That said, if you want to get a code review done it’s usually a simple matter of identifying the appropriate developer and paying them to do it – usually a basic code review for a small application like an MVP can be done in 2 or 3 hours. You might invest a few hundred bucks into this for a great domestic developer that you could probably find on craigslist, or less for a top-shelf Elance type developer.
But, you need to be realistic about what the code review is getting you. Almost every developer can (and will) happily criticize another developers code, and there is always room for something to be more elegant and just done differently. In this context, that is really not the point of a code review, in my view.
The objective is to get the following two outcomes:
- To ensure that your developers are cranking out absolute crap that is nearly useless, i.e. to make sure there is no imminent nightmare coming your way.
- To determine the viability of a longer-term relationship with the vendor.
You will also learn a bit from a code review if the reviewer is good and communicates well. So, whether this is a useful endeavor is debatable, but it can certainly be done. Good luck!!
Originally published as SourceSeek’s answer to the Quora question: I’m outsourcing development for my MVP, how do I code review and audit the quality??
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Dave Hecker
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