Effective monitoring and quality assurance are crucial in preventing broken builds and ensuring software quality throughout the development lifecycle. Here’s how this process is generally managed:
Detecting Broken Builds
- Compilation: The system should be compiled from source within a clone of the production environment to ensure consistency.
- Automated Regression Tests: A comprehensive suite of automated regression tests should be run against the entire system.
- Static Analysis: Perform static analysis checks, such as code style conformity, and compare the results to established benchmarks.
- High Priority: If any step fails, the build is considered broken. A broken build is then given the highest priority, with all other development activities halted until the issue is resolved.
Preventing Broken Public Builds
- Private Builds: Developers should perform private builds in their own environment before committing changes to the trunk.
- Iterative Testing and Building: If the private build fails, adjustments are made until it passes. Only then are the changes merged into the trunk and a public build is attempted.
- Cycle of Revisions: This process continues—modifying and building—until a successful public build is achieved.
Preventing Broken Builds with Branches
- Branch Development: Developers should create and develop features in branches, merging trunk changes frequently.
- Branch Builds: After successful branch development and before merging back to the trunk, ensure the branch builds successfully.
- Integration into Trunk: Once merged into the trunk, another build is performed to confirm no new issues have been introduced.
- Commit Frequency: This method, while reducing the number of broken builds, may decrease the frequency of commits and increase the size of each commit due to the effort required to integrate changes.
This structured approach to software quality in CI environments helps in minimizing disruptions and maintaining a high standard of product quality throughout the project’s development phases.