Table of Contents
Reducing High Pull Request Review Time
It's integral to a continuously developing team to be reviewing code as close to real-time as possible. Here are some ways to reduce review time.
For continuously improving teams, code reviews should happen as close to real time as possible. As an industry benchmark, pull request reviews should be completed in under 2 days.
You can review industry benchmarks here: Metrics Community Benchmarks
When review time is high, the main dashboard displays the Review metric in red.
How to identify high review time
Check the Pulse view
Long reviews can be identified in the Pulse tab. An orange alert appears next to reviews that have been active for more than 4 days.
View all active reviews
To see all PRs currently in review:
- Go to the Activity tab.
- Sort by Pull Requests.
- Click Additional Filters.
- Select PR State → In Review.
From this view, sort by Updated to find the oldest reviews.
Common causes of high review time
The team is unaware the PR was issued
Even high-performing teams experience communication gaps. Use LinearB’s Slack alerts for hanging reviews to notify the team when a PR has been waiting too long.
Pair developers—especially new team members—with reviewers, and encourage the use of WorkerB personal alerts so reviewers are notified directly when they are assigned.
The team is too busy
High workload and multitasking reduce available review time. Monitor work-in-progress using the Pulse view or the Active Branches metric to ensure work is balanced.
The pull request is too large
Large PRs often linger because they require significant review effort. Breaking work into smaller, faster iterations improves review time across the board.
Ways to reduce review time
Set up Slack alerts for long reviews
Slack alerts notify the team in real time when reviews have been active for too long.
To enable alerts:
- Go to Team Settings → Notifications.
- Click Edit this under Review request hanging.
- Set the alert threshold (for example, 1 day or even half a day).
The team’s Slack channel will be alerted and members can click directly into the PR.
Enable WorkerB personal Slack alerts
WorkerB personal alerts send direct messages when PRs are assigned or when comments and requests are added.
If Slack is already enabled:
/lb invite— invite team members/lb pref— manage personal preferences
Useful commands:
/lb updates— view PR updates/lb reviews— view PRs assigned to you/lb prs— view PRs created by you
Build a metrics dashboard
Use the Metrics tab to build a custom dashboard tracking review-related performance. Learn how here: How Do I Build a Metrics Dashboard?
Recommended metrics:
- Pickup Time — identify trends and review delays
- PRs Merged w/o Review — ensure code is not merged without oversight
- PR Size — large PRs take longer to review
- Active Branches — monitor overload and context switching
Make review checks a habit
- Regularly review hanging PRs in the Activity tab.
- Track review time trends weekly to monitor improvement over iterations.
How did we do?
Preventing Pull Requests from Being Merged Without Proper Review
Reducing Pull Request Pickup Time
