Nitpick-CI

Every software development group tests its products, yet delivered software always has defects. Test engineers strive to catch them before the product is released but they always creep in and they often reappear, even with the best manual testing processes. Using automated testing is the best way to increase the effectiveness, efficiency and coverage of your software testing. Manual software testing is performed by a human sitting in front of a computer carefully going through application screens, trying various usage and input combinations, comparing the results to the expected behavior and recording their observations. Manual tests are repeated often during development cycles for source code changes and other situations like multiple operating environments and hardware configurations. Continuous integration (CI) has emerged as one of the most efficient ways to develop code. But testing has not always been a major part of the CI conversation. In some respects, that’s not surprising. Traditionally, CI has been all about speeding up the coding, building, and release process. Instead of having each programmer write code separately, integrate it manually, and then wait until the next daily or weekly build to see if the changes broke anything, CI lets developers code and compile on a virtually continuous basis. It also means developers and admins can work together seamlessly since the programming and build processes are always in sync. Continuous Integration (CI) is a development practice that requires developers to integrate code into a shared repository several times a day. Each check-in is then verified by an automated build, allowing teams to detect problems early. By integrating regularly, you can detect errors quickly, and locate them more easily. Solve problems quickly Because you’re integrating so frequently, there is significantly less back-tracking to discover where things went wrong, so you can spend more time building features. Continuous Integration is cheap. Not continuously integrating is costly. If you don’t follow a continuous approach, you’ll have longer periods between integrations. This makes it exponentially more difficult to find and fix problems. Such integration problems can easily knock a project off-schedule, or cause it to fail altogether. Continuous Integration brings multiple benefits to your organization: Say goodbye to long and tense integrations Increase visibility which enables greater communication Catch issues fast and nip them in the bud Spend less time debugging and more time adding features Proceed with the confidence you’re building on a solid foundation Stop waiting to find out if your code’s going to work Reduce integration problems allowing you to deliver software more rapidly “Continuous Integration doesn’t get rid of bugs, but it does make them dramatically easier to find and remove.” - Martin Fowler, Chief Scientist, ThoughtWorks Continuous Integration is backed by several important principles and practices. Practices in Continuous Integration: Maintain a single source repository Automate the build Make your build self-testing Every commit should build on an integration machine Keep the build fast Test in a clone of the production environment Make it easy for anyone to get the latest executable Everyone can see what’s…