The Importance of Continuous Integration in Software Development

Why Do We Need Continuous Integration and Delivery?

The efficiency of a software development workflow is the difference between a faulty application system and a fully functional one. Software development teams with the guidance of their team leaders need to streamline the software development process through breaking down the process into little manageable tasks. One way to improve the workflow is via continuous integration.

The following article will elucidate the importance of continuous integration in software development.

What Is Continuous Integration?

Continuous integration involves testing each modification a developer introduces to the codebase automatically, immediately when they occur. This practice helps software developers to complete tasks in a timely and predictable manner.

Continuous integration involves some integral components. The first is to make a self-testing build. This encapsulates the testing mechanisms in the development process. Whether you are working with Test Driven Development or Behavior Driven Development, testing is the mainstay task of the build process. A self-testing build is repeatable, scalable and modifiable, thus highlighting clandestine bugs that, due to human error, may go unnoticed.

Continuous integration involves an automatic build. The automatic build runs in a precise order, coupling its operation with user authentication. A code modification fed to the codebase prompts the system to test the build for errors and crashes automatically.

Additionally, continuous integration encompasses testing in a clone environment, similar to the production environment. This is to eliminate compatibility errors that arise due to the difference in operating system versions, extensions, and software libraries.

There is a myriad of testing tools available in the market that are a part of the continuous integration process. They are Selenium, PhantomJS, Jasmine, CasperJS, Cucumber and Lettuce just to mention a few.

Why We Need Continuous Integration

To elucidate the importance of continuous integration, it is better to employ the use of hypothetical scenarios illustrating the difference of a software development team practicing continuous integration and a team that does not.

Let us begin with the team that does not. Management approaches the IT team with a problem with an application in the system. The IT director receives the complaints and assigns a team of exceptional developers to the case. The codebase of the executable is provided and every developer gets to work trying to fix the system and patch errors.

We are “N” days without crises.

Each developer with his set of code proceeds to modify the codebase fails to test the build. A fortnight later the team leader checks the system, and it fails. The fundamental question here is, how will the team of developers go about debugging the build? How long will the debugging process take seeing that the developers cannot point out where the error occurred. Primarily, developing systems in such a scattered manner is time consuming and taxing.

To surmount such a paralyzing event, programmers need to break down the development process into small tasks through practicing a more predictable and repeatable activity. With continuous integration, developers feed in their partially complete work back into the central repository on a regular basis and run tests.

This helps developers identify what exactly broke a build and what steps to take to mitigate the error. Continuous running of tests makes the development process seamless.

Benefits of Use of Continuous Integration

Jenkins Continuous Integration

Continuous Integration carries with it many advantages for both software developers, product managers, startups and enterprises.

Throughout the automation of processes, continuous integration eradicates manual deployment that has human errors. Automation of the self-testing build based on set criterion eliminates the need for human intervention during implementation. This facilitates the reduction of labor on redundant activities, liberating people to engage in higher order work. Furthermore, through automatic deployment, improvements are implemented immediately.

The production environment is free from staging errors because the system quarantines bugs during the regular inspections. Errors are easily identified and the team can discuss steps to mitigate the problems that arise after each test.

Regular testing garners invaluable insight regarding the health of the codebase with the addition of modifications. The generation of analysis reports is an excellent way to document the software development process and a way to highlight trends in the codebase. Revisiting the reports will help team leaders organize groups and reflect on the direction of the team in future projects.

PROTIP: For each change on the environment / application, it is recommended a new test session until the goal is reached.

What Are the Success Factors for Continuous Integration

Continuous Integration boils down to the habits of the members working on the development project. There are some practices, albeit disruptive, that require strict adherence to guarantee the success of continuous integration

Commitment to daily testing is paramount. Any modification to the codebase is liable for thorough testing with the automatic build.

Ensure that the margin between the production environment and the development environment is narrow. This is to validate assumptions arising due to version difference and operating system differences.

PROTIP: You can execute a continuous stress test during the continuous integration process.

Lastly, fix all broken builds immediately. Proceeding to the next development phase without reconciling issues in the previous is paralyzing to the entire development process.

The key in such a transition to continuous delivery is to expect things to get worse before you’ll be able to make them better. — Matthias Marschall

Top 6 Continuous Integration and Delivery Software

Jenkins — https://jenkins.io/ Circle CI — https://circleci.com/ CodeShip — https://codeship.com/ TeamCity — https://www.jetbrains.com/teamcity/ GoCD — https://www.gocd.org/ Drone — https://github.com/drone/drone

Conclusion

Introducing automatic testing and continuous integration to the development process requires a shift in the habits and members. It will take time and patience to cement commitment to testing modifications at every turn. However, the benefits of continuous integration are bountiful and vital to the software development process.

The use of a continuous integration and deliver system (CI/CD) is crucial to automate the quality process and reduce problems on the production environment.

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