[renku]

The problems you describe aren't really problems with Code Review per se, rather with the process that's enforcing the reviews.

The idea of code reviews is that somebody else reads your code and provides feedback. Whether the reviewer is sent a pull request, a list of commits in master or a printout is a matter of implementation.

I see a cyclic problem in here: Reviews take lot of time -> developers want to get more done, not wait for a review -> so they send more changes to review -> reviews take even more time -> ...

I think the solution is to find ways to make reviews smaller instead. Breaking tasks to smaller pieces that take less time to implement and review. (But not by reducing the # of lines in diff - squeezing several changes into one commit is a sure way to make it harder to review.) Smaller reviews will also be more effective - with large reviews there's a tendency for a reviewer to wear off and just skim through the changes.

Of course that's easier to say than do... it's something I'm trying to do by myself and not fully succeeding.