Recordkeeping

As explained in "Looks Good to Me"

The systematic creation and preservation of records that capture the context, details, and history of work.

When a team reviews a change, the pull request can become more than an approval step: it can preserve why the change happened, what changed, and what the team decided. That record supports later debugging, knowledge transfer, sharing, and refactoring. section 3.1.5

A practical recordkeeping habit includes:

• Prepare pull requests with meaningful context and details. section 3.1.6
• Use categorization prefixes, labels, and links to related tickets or stories. section 3.1.6
• Keep important context in the pull request even when a bug tracker or project board holds additional detail. section 3.1.5
• Capture insights and outcomes from pair or mob programming as well as pull-request reviews. section 3.1.5

Figure 3.1 Choosing code review goals for your team

Use the goal-selection figure to decide when recordkeeping fits alongside stability, maintainability, and other code review goals. section 3.1.6

How "Looks Good to Me" covers it

How deep it goes

Develops a practical workflow of context, prefixes, labels, links, iteration, and accountability without specifying a particular platform.

Examples

Uses pull-request context, categorization prefixes, labels, linked tickets, and documented pair- or mob-programming outcomes.

What it assumes

Assumes a team is establishing a code review process and teaches recordkeeping as a selectable, gradually adopted goal.

What you can do after

Apply it by preparing contextual pull requests and linking durable records so teams can investigate and understand changes later.

How it connects

Connects code review with debugging, knowledge transfer, knowledge sharing, refactoring, and codebase maintainability.

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Related concepts

• code reviewproduced by · Code review is the systematic examination of source code or proposed changes to identify problems and assess or improve quality.
• pull requestused by · A pull request is a version-control proposal to integrate changes from one branch or repository into another, typically supporting review and discussion before merging.
• debuggingaddresses · Debugging is the systematic process of investigating software behavior to locate, diagnose, and correct defects or their causes.
• knowledge transferaddresses · Knowledge transfer is the conveyance or application of information, skills, or learned capabilities from one person, system, task, or context to another.
• pipelineproduces · A pipeline is an ordered or coordinated sequence of connected processing stages or tasks that passes data, work, or results toward an outcome.

This explainer was generated by Manning's knowledge graph from the text of "Looks Good to Me". The section links point to the parts of the book it draws on.