---
title: "Code Reviews and Blame Culture"
url: https://daily.dev/posts/code-reviews-and-blame-culture-lxfxeboek
source_url: https://verraes.net/2016/04/code-reviews-and-blame-culture
type: article
source: "Mathias Verraes"
published: 2026-06-17T11:25:40.048Z
updated: 2026-06-17T11:27:34.765Z
tags: ["cicd", "leadership", "code-review", "company-culture"]
reading_time: 4
upvotes: 0
comments: 0
language: en
---

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# Code Reviews and Blame Culture

**[Mathias Verraes](https://daily.dev/sources/verraes)** · 4 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments

## Summary

Pre-merge code reviews are often dismissed as harmful to team culture, but in dysfunctional teams lacking tests and refactoring skills, they can actually reduce blame culture. By following five simple rules — opening PRs early, never merging your own code, never merging code you don't understand, reviewing before starting new tasks, and contributing commits over comments — responsibility for bugs shifts from individuals to the team collectively. This collective accountability encourages teams to invest in automated tests, mentorship, and shared tooling. The broader lesson is that best practices always carry context, and what works for high-performing teams may not be the right starting point for struggling ones.

## Full article

daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: <https://verraes.net/2016/04/code-reviews-and-blame-culture>

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---

Tags: [#cicd](https://daily.dev/tags/cicd), [#leadership](https://daily.dev/tags/leadership), [#code-review](https://daily.dev/tags/code-review), [#company-culture](https://daily.dev/tags/company-culture)

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