The current series of posts have been recommending short-lived feature branches to help in-house and remote developers to work on the same code modules. Feature toggles and automated tests provide important protections while working in this manner.

Code reviews provide another key protection when code is being merged to the master branch regularly. (While the relative merits of automated tests versus code reviews have been debated vigorously, the simple truth is that the best results are obtained when both are implemented effectively.)

At Amplified Development, we recommend that all team members review all code merged to master in the previous 24 hours. When these reviews are performed at the beginning of the work day, it will usually take about a half hour each day (for a small team of 4-6 developers).

Feature toggles, automated tests, and code reviews work together very effectively. Feature toggles ensure new code never executes in a given environment until you want it to. Automated tests ensure there is no regression in system functionality. And, code reviews counteract the build up of technical debt.

All of this allows teams to work in a tightly integrated manner, achieving genuine code ownership at all times.