Let’s face it – pull requests can be painful. They’re often time-consuming, fraught with merge conflicts, and can leave you waiting around on others or totally disrupt your coding flow. But what if there was an easier way to manage these requests without all the hassles and delays?

In our recent GitKraken Workshop, Tuning Up Your PR Workflows, we aimed to tackle these very issues – making collaboration smoother and more efficient while minimizing the common headaches associated with PRs.

The Role and Significance of Pull Requests

Pull Requests (PRs) allow developers to review, discuss, and refine code before it merges into the main project, ensuring quality and cohesion. However, despite their critical role, PRs can often become a source of frustration, leading to delayed projects and strained team dynamics.

One of the most significant challenges in PR workflows is the late-stage collaboration, where code is reviewed only after substantial development has already occurred. This approach can lead to significant rework if major issues are identified, wasting valuable time and resources.

To counter this, fostering early collaboration is key. By involving reviewers at earlier stages of development, teams can identify potential issues and areas of improvement before they become entrenched in the codebase. This proactive approach not only streamlines the review process but also enhances the overall quality of the code.

Collaborate Earlier with Cloud Patches

Cloud Patches were designed to change the way devs collaborate on code before reaching the PR stage, allowing teammates to share small increments of code with one another without the formalities of a full commit. This feature is particularly beneficial for early-stage feedback and collaborative code refinement, ensuring that only the most polished changes make it to the PR stage.

By using Cloud Patches, teams can significantly reduce the back-and-forth typically associated with PR reviews. Developers can share their work with more experienced colleagues for early input, or even with peers for a quick sanity check. This not only accelerates the development process but also enhances the quality of the final product by incorporating diverse perspectives early on.

Utilize Cloud Stashes for Personal Productivity

Another innovative solution presented in the workshop was Cloud Stashes, another use case based on the Cloud Patch framework designed to enhance personal productivity and flexibility for work in progress (WIPs). 

Cloud Stashes extend the traditional idea of stashing in Git by allowing developers to save their work-in-progress changes to the cloud. This means that unfinished work can be securely stored and easily accessed from anywhere, providing a seamless transition between work environments and devices. Now, you can pause work on one task, switch to another, and then return to your original task without losing context or progress, no matter where you’re located – perfect for devs juggling multiple features or bug fixes.

Transform Your PR Workflows with GitKraken

By leveraging tools like Cloud Patches and Stashes for better code management, developers can streamline their workflows, improve code quality, and enhance team collaboration.

Want to learn more? Check out the full workshop on our YouTube channel for an in-depth exploration of these strategies and a firsthand look at GitKraken’s powerful features. Embrace these insights to transform your PR workflows, making them more manageable and less time-consuming, and join us in redefining collaborative coding for the better.