Better Review = Better Quality
Collaborator makes code reviews easy and efficient for developer
teams. This consistently leads to greater adoption of code review as a
practice, and naturally, to better code. The key is the user experience,
allowing other members of the team to easily and collaboratively
provide feedback, and for the author to track and take action against
each comment.
With Collaborator, the same user experience that coders enjoy is
extended to other members of the project team – and to their
deliverables – through document and artifact review. Product owners
create user stories, testers create test plans, technical communicators
create user documentation… and other members of the team provide
detailed feedback on these deliverables.
The authors of these deliverables benefit from:
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Receiving feedback on their work without reviewers altering their work
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Keeping track of all the feedback and the disposition of each comment
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Learning from each other by seeing comments from others – and commenting on the work of other team members
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Interacting in real-time, if they happen to be reviewing the work at the same time
Collaborator creates an ideal environment for both code review and peer review of documents and artifacts.
Code & Document Review Features
Reviewing code, documents, and other project deliverables can be a huge pain in the posterior. But it doesn’t have to be.
Collaborator is the first tool to help you manage all of these review processes simply.
Asynchronous Reviews
With Collaborator, reviews happen asynchronously. And they
happen on your time. So at night, while one of your authors of code in
the U.S. is sleeping, one of your code reviewers in India can be
reviewing their code. No meetings… and nothing to interrupt you from the
work you’re doing!
User Threaded, Contextual Chat
Collaborator links file changes, chat conversations, and defects
together in your code review. You can view each conversation, threaded
by file and line number, simultaneously with file content. There’s no
need to toggle back and forth between emails and editors. Choose between
multiple views or download differences to your local machine for
further inspection and testing. You can even hyperlink directly to a
file or line numbers.
Real-time Chat
Collaborator’s web-based "chat" interface acts just like an instant
messenger. Whenever another user chats, your screen will automatically
update in real-time – no need to refresh the screen.
Test and Diff Files Locally
With Collaborator, you can compare any diffs easily. Download a ZIP
file containing the latest contents of all files under review. Expand
code into your development environment for manual testing, checking the
build, and running unit tests. Or click a button to download all diffs
and view in a local diff viewer such as DiffMerge or Araxis Merge.
Customizable and Automated Workflows
Customizable workflows and fields help ensure that Collaborator can be
modified to your workflow rather than the other way around. You make the
rules; we just help you execute them. Change the rules for the review
depending on pre-defined, configurable review types and desired
workflow. For example, a "Self Check" review might only require that the
author look over his own files. A "Formal" review might require a
moderator, author, one or more reviewers, and a recorder. Configurable
roles allow you to specify expectations for each person in the review
and control what each user can do and view.
Defect Tracking & Management
Find a problem, create a defect. It’s as simple as that. This defect
management feature helps you create defects using customizable fields so
you can collect as much (or as little) data as you like. Once you log a
defect, the software tracks it as part of the review and ensures all
defects get addressed before review completion. Authors can correct
defects and upload changes back to the review for verification. Even
when line numbers shift as a result of a defect fix, Collaborator is
smart enough to thread all chat conversations and defects back to the
correct logical line of code. Collaborator even shares the defect
details with your Issue Tracking system, such as Bugzilla or FogBugz.
Easy Deployment & Administration
Collaborator adapts to your environment. Authenticate users internally
or by using corporate LDAP or Active Directory. Manage privileges,
activity, and monitor usage through intuitive metrics reports that
detail inspection rates, defect rates, and more.
IDE & SCM Integrations
Collaborator integrates with more SCMs than any other code review tool –
16 in all including: AccuRev, CMVC, CVS, Git, Mercurial, MKS Integrity,
Perforce, Rational ClearCase (including ClearCase Remote Client),
Rational Synergy, Rational Team Concert, Subversion, StarTeam, Surround
SCM, Team Foundation Server, Vault, and Visual Source Safe. Collaborator
also integrates with Eclipse and Visual Studio.
Metrics & Reporting
We know that metrics and reporting is essential. That’s why
Collaborator, the world leader in peer review reporting and metrics,
provides over 100 reports designed to give you visibility into how your
team is using it – and to help your tem improve their development and
review work. Customize reports to show metrics like status of pending
code reviews and detailed audit trails. View results on-line, print, or
export as CSV files. Easily compute key metrics such as defect density,
inspection rate, and defect detection rate so you can gauge your
performance – and your improvement!
Regulatory & CMMI Compliance
Many users of Collaborator are in regulated environments and those that
have to comply with CMMI. With Collaborator you can quickly implement
the standardized and documented peer review processes required for CMMI,
and accelerate and simplify the CMMI audit review process with
centralized reporting. With this reporting, you can enable continuous
process improvements to get the most from CMMI and peer review.