An approver is a person authorized to approve a proposed code change for integration. Teams use approvers to support knowledge transfer and codebase maintainability, while avoiding approval delays during urgent fixes. section 3.4.1
Set the approval policy according to both quality goals and operating conditions:
- Require at least two approvers when shared review, knowledge transfer, and maintainability are the priority. section 3.4.1
- Reconsider the policy when the minimum creates a bottleneck, especially during production incidents or teammate absences. section 3.4.1
- Record the decision in the team working agreement and share the reasoning so later reviewers understand the change. section 3.4.1
Two approvers versus an emergency fix
A team requires two approvers for every pull request. After production fixes are delayed while key teammates are absent, the team discusses changing the rule. A single approver could reduce delays, but weakening the general policy may be too drastic; the team instead needs to address how regular and emergency changes should be handled. section 3.4.1
