PRs: The Silent Victims of DevOps Chaos — And How I’m Fixing My Approach

As a DevOps engineer, my days rarely follow a neat plan. In theory, I’m balancing proactive work automating infrastructure, refining CI/CD pipelines, and improving security with reactive work like fixing broken deployments or helping colleagues troubleshoot oddities in production. Somewhere in that chaos lies pull request reviews and if I’m honest, they’ve often been the first thing to fall through the cracks.

This post is a reflection on why PRs get stuck, the impact it has, and how I’m changing my approach to do better for my team and myself.

Why My PRs Get Stuck (The Real Reasons)

🔹 1. PRs Don’t Scream for Attention

PRs are polite. They don’t set off alerts or throw errors in Slack. They quietly wait for attention, while the loudest problems failed deployments, urgent tickets, and security escalations always cut the queue.

🔹 2. Fear of Breaking Stuff

Especially in infrastructure changes, clicking ‘Merge’ can feel like disarming a bomb. Even if the change is small, there’s always that nagging fear:

“What if this breaks prod, and I’m on support tomorrow?”

🔹 3. Perfectionism Creeps In

I’ve caught myself holding back merges because I spot a “better way” to do something even if that improvement wasn’t in the original scope of the PR.

“This could be more DRY… should we refactor this into a module?”
Suddenly, a 10-line PR turns into an overthought design discussion, and I’m the blocker.

🔹 4. Context Switching: The DevOps Curse

PR reviews need focus and focus is hard when Slack, Jira, email, and impromptu calls pull you into completely different contexts every 15 minutes.

🔹 5. “I’ll Get Back to It” Never Works

I’m guilty of opening a PR tab, reading half of it, and telling myself I’ll finish after lunch. I almost never do. By the time I remember, the context is gone, and the tab is closed.

The Impact on My Team

Delaying PR reviews slows down the whole team. It leaves work hanging in limbo and creates invisible blockers. When someone’s waiting for feedback (or worse, approval to deploy), they can’t fully move forward. That hurts delivery, collaboration, and trust.

How I’m Fixing It

✅ 1. Scheduled Daily PR Power Hour

PRs need to be part of my daily routine — not something I “get to if there’s time.”

I’m now blocking dedicated time every day to review, comment, and merge. It’s in my calendar, and I treat it like a stand-up: non-optional.

✅ 2. The 24-Hour Rule

If I’m tagged in a PR, I’ll respond within 24 hours — even if I don’t have time for a full review, I’ll drop a quick comment like:

“I see this, I’ll review after the school run.”
Silence creates frustration. Even small updates show respect for my colleagues’ time.

✅ 3. Define “Good Enough to Merge”

Not every PR needs to be perfect. The new mindset I’m adopting:

• Does it solve the problem?
• Does it avoid introducing new risk?
• Is the code maintainable?

If those boxes are ticked, it gets merged improvements can come later. I’m reminding myself that “perfect is the enemy of shipped.”

✅ 4. Automate Confidence

Some of my merge hesitation comes from not fully trusting the pipeline. I’m working to beef up automated checks static analysis, pre-merge tests, automated deployment dry-runs so manual review focuses on value, not syntax or boilerplate.

✅ 5. Own My Dashboard

I’m now tracking all PRs where I’m assigned on a personal dashboard. If my name is on it, I own moving it forward whether that means reviewing, merging, or asking for help.

Bigger Picture: DevOps is a Team Sport

PR reviews are more than code checks they’re moments of collaboration. A fast, thoughtful review helps everyone move faster. Leaving PRs to rot signals a breakdown in team flow.

I want to be the kind of teammate I’d want to work with reliable, communicative, and proactive. Improving how I handle PRs is a simple but powerful way to show that.

For Other DevOps Engineers: Ask Yourself...

• Do you have dedicated review time, or are you winging it?
• Are you overthinking reviews when “good enough” would do?
• Are you communicating your review timeline, or just going silent?
• Do you trust your automation pipeline enough to merge confidently?

PR management is a skill and like any skill, it takes deliberate practice. I’m working to level up here, and if you’re a DevOps engineer (or anyone in tech), I’d love to hear how you handle PRs in your team.

Final Thought

If you see my name as a reviewer, expect faster responses from me going forward. And if I slip? Call me out. This is how we all get better.