PR Review SLA Enforcer

How It Works

This recipe introduces review hygiene: small PRs, explicit blocking vs non-blocking feedback,

and escalation when reviews exceed the agreed SLA.

Triggers

• PRs wait days for reviews
• Review comments are ambiguous ("is this blocking?")
• Teams complain that review, not coding, is the bottleneck

Steps

1. Establish review SLAs (e.g., first response within 4 business hours).
2. Use a PR template that forces context: why, risk, test evidence.
3. Require reviewers to mark comments as blocking or non-blocking.
4. Escalate stale reviews (auto ping; then rotate to a backup reviewer).
5. Track review latency metrics and address chronic bottlenecks.

Expected Outcome

• Faster merges and fewer stalled PRs.
• Reduced bikeshedding and clearer decision-making.

Example Inputs

• "We need reviews same-day for most PRs."
• "People leave comments but don't approve or block."
• "Large PRs are hard to review and cause slowdowns."

Tips

• Review is coordination work: make the state unambiguous.