Best Practices of Continuous Integration
Continuous Integration helps the developers to integrate the code into a shared repository several times a day. Frequent integration is built and tested in an automated way. The frequent analysis helps to detect errors and locate them in a short time. Sometimes it requires a database, queuing, caching, and web servers which make it complex. To avoid complexity and successfully integrate, developers need to follow the best practices of Continuous Integration.
Top Best Practices of CI
Continuous Integration is a relatively new term in the IT industry. That is the main reason developers find it hard to implement and monitor it efficiently. Here are top best practices of frequent integration to improve the quality:
1. Code Repository
Here developers need to revise the control system for the source code. They need to remember branching is unavoidable. The main challenge of branching is synchronizing the latest release branch changes with the main branch. To overcome this, members need to make the release shorter. The system needs to run in such a way so that they can avoid dependencies.
2. Automate the Build and Test Process
The building process needs zero-touch automation. It includes automating the integration process and running a script after the build ends. It helps to deploy the application into a production-like environment successfully. A script also compiles to generate documentation, website pages, statistics, and distribution media. After building the code, they need to run the autotest. It ensures that the software’s behavior matches the expectations.
3. Test in a Production like an Environment
Testing environment and production environment may differ from each other. That is why sometimes software fails in production though successfully passed in the test. Developers can build a replica of the production environment, but it is costly. So they need to build a scalable version of the pre-production environment. It alleviates the cost and maintains stack composition and nuances.
4. Visualize the Latest Build
Developers need to build an early testing application to reduce the possibility of a defect in the deployment. Early detection prevents the burden of rework to resolve issues. It helps teams to respond to the latest discovered issues in a coordinated manner. They also need to consider the visibility to find the build breaks quickly. Building a built-in artifact repository helps to get easy access.
As Continuous Integration is relatively a new term in the software industry, developers may face difficulties in understanding and implementing it. But above best practices provides a framework to meet the expectations of developers. Businesses need to understand and start practicing them to get the best output in a short time.
