Ask HN: Should I hire someone to do a code review? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Should I hire someone to do a code review?

Hi guys - I have no programming experience and hired an outsourcing company to create an iPhone app MVP for my idea. The first iteration looks good (and works), but before I give them money to do more work , I'd like to get a 3rd party opinion on the code quality.

The easiest way for me would be to hire a freelance developer to perform code review and provide me a honest assessment of what lies under the hood. Few questions:

1) Is this a good approach, or are there better ones? 2) What type of costs should I expect? Hourly, Fixed, etc. 3) As this reviewer will be remote, what steps can I take to protect IP, lines of code from being used for their own purposes, etc.

Thanks much NC

View on HN

Yes, you should get someone to do a code review. Ideally, you should make this part of the ongoing process so that design and architecture problems can be caught early, while its easier to unravel them.

For the code review, plan to hire someone mid-level to senior - with at least 5 years iOS development experience and several apps shipped to the App Store. (And check those app reviews - don't hire someone whose app crashes a lot!) That will mean a higher hourly rate, but they'll know best practices better. You can hire them on a per-hour or a per-project basis. The number of hours will depend on the size of the codebase.

Code is harder to read and understand than it is to write. It takes far longer to read a chunk of code than it does to read a similar number of characters of non-fiction prose. For a small codebase, the reviewer should be able to finish in 1-2 weeks. For a sprawling one, it could take a couple months. Get an estimate from anyone you consider hiring.

You've already gotten decent advice on NDAs. My experience is that they're not really enforceable in many common outsourcing destinations for both legal and cultural reasons. And that in the US and other "western" cultures you don't really need them if you're dealing with someone operating in good faith. But in either case they can't hurt as a CYA move.

Good luck!

Great question but there's this thing called "Non-Disclosure Agreements", you know. First, make them sign the NDA, then share your code. If something goes south, hire an experienced lawyer and voilà!

Yes, I think it is a good idea. Whatever you put in place for the outsourcing company (NDAs), I would do for the reviewer.

Depending on how much money you want to commit to this idea, I would suggest hiring a freelancer. Ideally you would have an in-house technical person to help you going forward. NDA s are good but depending on the situation not implementable. I suggest building a business moat that can't be copied even if the code is copied. If you agree , I am building a network for people to contribute to projects and get rewarded for it. Public beta starts Feb 8th. Check out www.crowdraising.co Not . Com

In my opinion NDAs are worthless (in most cases) and gives a false sense of ownership protection. As far as code reviews, you absolutely should include at least one. I know of a case directly in which the outsourced developer "accidently" left their API endpoint. Had it went into production they would see all sorts of things.

I think you will be wasting your money and setting up a bad culture. How many rounds of review are you going to ? After the first round will you hire another one to do more rounds ? Although the product works, it seems you seem to want 100% bullet proof product which will not be possible. Just make sure your product works and when you start making money hire a team and not freelancers to do your code review and manage the product.

I'm looking to just done ONE code review, as I'm trying to gauge the performance. Once I get the baseline on their skill sets, I would trust that their future performance is similar and that would give me some comfort that they are doing the right thing.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com