Towards a taxonomy of code review smells

Code review is a crucial step of the software development life cycle in order to detect possible problems source code before merging changeset codebase. Although there no consensus on formally defined process, many companies and open (OSS) communities converge common rules best practices. In spite minor differences different platforms, primary purpose all these practices leads faster more effective process. Non-conformance developers this process does not only reduce advantages but can also introduce waste later stages development. The aim study provide an empirical understanding bad followed that are (CR) smells. We first conduct multivocal literature gather discussed white gray literature. Then, we targeted survey with 32 experienced practitioners perform follow-up interviews get their expert opinion. Based taxonomy smells introduced. To quantitatively demonstrate existence smells, analyze 226,292 reviews collected from eight OSS projects. observe considerable number exist projects varying degrees ratios. results illustrate 72.2% among affected by at least one smell. analysis shows substantially provided could foundation for tool support avoid practice.