Automated Build and Release Management
Nobody is perfect. Individuals cannot consistently release software into an existing production environment without un-intended consequences. In my opinion, the best way to overcome this truth is to not only test your software, but to test your release and release process. Two things make this effective and efficient:
- Automated release generation
- Automated release testing
Building software for release manually is a time consuming task. This is especially true if you are not building a release from a machine with previous bits. Starting with new/clean bits for a release candidate assures that the bits contained in your version control accurately represent the bits generated and tested. This results in repeatable results and a guarantee that you have not inadvertently integrated development or test bits into your release.
So, regardless of who’s tools you use to maintain your source, schedule your builds, and test the resultant build, the goal remains the same. Find a way to generate bits in a fashion that you can execute over and over the same way.
Behind this process are a number of tools. Sunny shared one tool which may be a foundation to continuous build; Source Control. Any modern source control works. The key for continuous build is for you build environment to be able to get bits from source control to begin the build process.
Using Source Control you can establish a shared environment/repository available to all contributors. We’ll talk about that in more detail tomorrow.
Send your comments to btaylor@sswug.org if you would like to join the conversation.
Cheers,
Ben
$$SWYNK$$
Featured Article(s)
Working With Variable Length Data
One of the key design issues that must be addressed in most database applications is how to implement character data that varies in size from row to row. The basic trade-off is “ease-of-use and performance” versus “storage requirements.” It is possible to save disk storage space by using variable columns instead of placing small amounts of data in a large fixed space.
Featured White Paper(s)
Achieve an astounding return on investment with Toad® for Oracle
read more)