A while back Jomo Fisher on our team started a rather interesting tradition. It all began one day after he had sent out a code-review to the team but after some time had heard no response. Being the impatient guy that he is, he decided to prod his colleagues with a little poetry, resending the request with the following haiku added:
Spring’s warmth melts snow whilenearby code awaits review.Sweet check-in beckons.
This beautiful haiku had the desired effect - his code was reviewed promptly! With this success, a tradition was born of threatening with haiku if code review requests were ignored for too long. Other devs on the team began crafting their own haiku, hoping to expedite their reviews as well. Here's a few I've sent out:
Code review ignoredChangeset languishing unseenEvening approaches
Unreviewed change-setLike an unharvested fruitDying on the vine Devs writing haikuIdly waiting to check inOrcas slowly slips
Unreviewed change-setLike an unharvested fruitDying on the vine
Devs writing haikuIdly waiting to check inOrcas slowly slips
Here's one from Matt Warren after a completed code review:
Code reviewed okaySome shenanigans undoneQuality improves
From haiku, things have started snowballing into other verse forms. Here's a great one by Keith Farmer in response to an email set out by Luca Bolognese after the C# PM team hit their ZBB (zero bug bounce) milestone:
To Xen PU did LucaBolAn email send, full of glee:Tests finally ran,Past bugs measureless to man,Down to a ZBB.
I'll have to hunt around my mail folders for the rest, I know there are some I've missed. Recently Jomo suggested that haiku are going out of style and that he preferred limmericks. We'll have to see where that goes ...