Following are the key principles of Continuous integration.

Revision Control is the basic standard which any software development team is following for the last couple of decades. The purpose of revision control which is also termed as version control or source control is to manage the changes made in the files that make up the code for a software project. It also allows us to switch back and forth within different versions of code using a single command, provided the changes are committed properly. In short, Revision Control not only makes our code base manageable while dealing with making/moving between changes, it also makes it much easier for the developers to integrate their code. This is the root of Continuous Integration; it is the best investment though most version control systems are free that an organization can make to ensure a cool life of the developers.

Build Automation is the ability to either automatically trigger and/or build a clean version of the entire source code using a single command or action using raw components. Most teams now take this further and allow their systems to be built completely from the code which is obtained directly from their version control system. This process has the ability to take a 30 minute task and wrap it up in few seconds. Establishing the patterns that the developers perform to start a clean or new system and also the environment for which the build is to be built, e.g. whether this be a production, staging, or development build saves our time in the long term.

Automated Deployment is the process in which we consistently keep on pushing a product to various environments with the help of some “trigger”. This allows us to quickly learn what is to be expected every time we deploy an environment having a much faster results. This combined with Build Automation has the ability to save a significant amount of hours for the development teams.

Automated Deployment saves the customers from being extensively offline while deployment and also it allows the developers to build with disturbing less number of clients systems. With an automated system, human error is prevented. In the event of human error, developers are able to catch it before live deployment

Testing can happen in multiple ways using the methods which we have probably heard as buzzwords. Some of these include automated testing e.g. unit testing and interface testing. Self-testing Builds are the next step. Once you have tests which can be automated, executing them simultaneously with a build is usually an easy job. The teams should have more awareness on what is going on with the product. Obviously, the more we test the greater visibility we have on the status of our product before the release. This is probably the difference between being a reactive or a proactive. It must be remembered that: Testing is only as good as the environment in which you test it.

It is common practice that every developer has the story of burning the proverbial midnight oil since their build didn't work on the production environment while the same is perfectly running on the staging or development environments. We must ensure that our testing environment is as close to production as possible. This approach minimizes this risk.

 Frequent Commits

Whenever we commit a code we are creating a new version in the version control system. This marks a point in the history of the code base where anyone is allowed to switch over to that point and use the changes made. In fact, each and every release of the product may include thousands of commits. This is a very good approach - the more modular the commits, the easier it is for developers to merge, move, add, and remove changes as per their need. This approach also gives a point of comfort, because if something does go wrong, they can start back where they were the last time they committed work.

 Code Consolidation

Code Consolidation is typically the best thing at the end of the day. This is the time when all development features are compiled and merged. It has some good features: -

Time is money. Faster Builds saves lot of time. Faster Build mechanism allow the developers to get on their feet faster, receive test results faster and see the product faster.

It is very important to have a current development and staging build available at all times. Regardless of the Automated Testing, there are few things which a computer cannot detect

It is very important to check which test passed and which failed. Availability of the Test Result gives us the visibility on the results to developers, managers and client stakeholders.

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