Build Process and Continuous Integration
Guye Engel, the CIO of MelbourneIT
A key attribute to developing software rapidly as possible is continuous integration. This is a practice where members of a development team integrate their work frequently; typically each developer integrates their working copy several times a day, which by extension, leads to multiple integrations per day. The integrations are continually verified by an automated testing process (which is an essential component of continuous integration) as they come in, in order to detect bugs as quickly as possible. This process of rapid integration and iteration usually leads to significantly reduced integration problems and allows a team to develop better software faster. Benefits include: reduced risk (issues are uncovered more rapidly), easier to find and remove bugs (which are usually cumulative, the sooner a bug can be found and eliminated the better), and if you are looking to deploy more frequently, it can help increase your overall throughput and quality in order to reach that goal.
A defined build process is one of the most necessary but often least-used tools in software development. It is by nature an overhead task that accompanies a development effort. A defined build process ensures that the software in your development project is built in the exact same manner each time a build is executed. As the build process becomes more complex it becomes more necessary to achieve standardisation. Establishing, documenting, and automating the exact series of steps eliminates problems that occur in production due to poor build processes.
base2Services defines the build process essential to your development cycle closing the gap between the development, integration, test, and production environments. A build process alone will speed the migration of software from one environment to another. It also removes many issues related to compilation and configuration that cost many projects time and money.