With the help of continuous integration, it is possible to speed up the software development process and ensure the quality of the code at the same time. It is a popular agile development practice that allows you to make changes in code as you develop the software. Hence, it is easier for development teams to respond quickly to changing requirements. Also, developers are able to deal with issues and maintain quality standards.
In this article, you will learn about continuous integration in general and how it works. Furthermore, you will also learn about its importance in software development practices. In addition to that, this article will also show you how to start continuous integration in your business and the best practices to follow. Hence, to learn more, read on through to the end of the article.
Continuous Integration: A General Overview
According to AWS, “Continuous integration is a DevOps software development practice where developers regularly merge their code changes into a central repository, after which automated builds and tests are run. Continuous integration most often refers to the build or integration stage of the software release process and entails both an automation component (e.g. a CI or build service) and a cultural component (e.g. learning to integrate frequently).”
Generally, the primary goals of continuous integration include:
- Finding and resolving software bugs quickly.
- Ensuring the improvement of software quality.
- Reducing the time for validation.
- Releasing new software updates from time to time.
It is a deployment automation process that consists of integrating changes in code from different contributors in a single software project. Actually, there is a central repository of code where developers can make changes by merging code. Here, developers also test and run code by using automated tools. After asserting the correctness of the code, they go towards integration.
Software Development and the Importance of Continuous Integration
Continuous integration works along with agile methodologies. The latter puts emphasis on the needs of the customer and focuses on flexibility, collaboration, and responsiveness. As the software developers start integrating code changes from time to time, they are able to respond faster to the changing needs of customers. As a result, it becomes easier for these developers to catch issues faster and ensure better quality.
According to the philosophy of continuous integration, you must commit to your code and integrate a minimum daily. Once you make small changes in your software development processes, you can bring out big results in a long time.
The following are some of the major benefits of continuous integration:
- Better productivity and efficiency
- Keeping at par with market changes
- Higher quality and stability of the product
- Better customer satisfaction
- Developers are more content and satisfied
Continuous Integration, Continuous Delivery, and Continuous Deployment
Continuous integration is the first stage of the DevOps cycle. On the other hand, continuous delivery and continuous deployment are the following stages of the cycle.
According to IBM, “Continuous delivery (CD) picks up where continuous integration ends, automating the delivery of applications to selected infrastructure environments. CD focuses on delivering any validated changes to the code base—updates, bug fixes, even new features—to users as quickly and safely as possible.”
With the help of continuous delivery, you can ensure automated code changes to a variety of areas like development, testing, and production.
On the other hand, continuous deployment consists of a process where the team automatically releases the code changes into the product environment. However, a series of predefined tests drive this automation. Hence, after the development team updates those tests, the updates directly go to the users’ software systems.
What are the Best Practices for Continuous Integration?
Atlassian.com states – “An organization will compile list of tasks that comprise a product roadmap. These tasks are then distributed amongst software engineering team members for delivery. Using CI enables these software development tasks to be developed independently and in parallel amongst the assigned developers.”
Hence, in general, developers commit early and often while practicing continuous integration. As a result, this allows these developers to find out and troubleshoot various problems before the deployment of production code. Therefore, it is necessary to commit frequently from time to time.
The following are some of the major best practices for continuous integration that you can follow:
- Ensure a strong testing culture in the development team, and make the team confident in testing.
- Make sure that your team’s testing environment mirrors the production of the software.
- It is essential to ensure that there is continuous monitoring of test results, which will give better visibility to the code. Also, there must be effective alerts that will give a better idea of deviation in code.
- To ensure the efficiency of the fast and efficient pipeline, it is important to automate the workflow.
How to Start with Continuous Integration?
The following are some steps that you need to take if you want to start with continuous integration:
1. Ensure Collaboration with Everyone: Here, you need to have the mindset of collaboration with your team and create an environment of continuous improvement.
2. Get a Version Control System: Before starting with CI, you need to start using a Version Control System (VCS). This way, you can start tracking changes in your code.
3. Sign Up for CI/CD Tools: You can choose from a variety of CI/CD tools. Also, it is important for you to find a platform that works best for you. Hence, you need to try out multiple ones and learn from reviews.
4. Create a YAML Configuration File: Before you set up a pipeline, you need to define various jobs and processes for execution. You can do this with the help of a YAML-based configuration file.
5. Start Adding Tests: Start writing tests that validate the functionality of your code. Then, add the tests to your pipeline. This will allow you to innovate accordingly.
6. Commit and Push Changes: After setting up, commit to your VCS changes and push them into your deployment repository,
7. Find Out Issues and Solve Them: After the CI/CD run, you must start reviewing your results. Hence, you can find out issues for improvement and start iterating accordingly.
8. Ensure Automation: You will need to find out those repetitive areas that consume a lot of time and then automate those tasks. This will also ensure better efficiency and product quality.
9. Manage Change: You will need to welcome changes to your codebase and consider the needs of your customers as well as the technological landscape.
Prerequisites of Continuous Integration
The major prerequisites for continuous integration include:
- Automation of building stage
- Testing automation
- Committing to a single repository of source code
- Providing visibility in the process and offering real-time access to continuous improvement.
Wrapping Up
Hence, you can see that continuous integration not only helps with better production but also helps with writing better code. Apart from that, implementing continuous integration will also allow you to ensure a testing culture in the organization. However, before you start with continuous integration, make sure you have access to quality CI/CD tools.
Frequently Asked Questions:
The following are some of the most common questions on continuous integration:
What is Continuous Integration?
Continuous integration is a software development practice in DevOps where multiple contributors to a code contribute to a single software project through integration. It helps in ensuring the quality of the code, and the improvement of the software.
What is Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery?
While the focus of continuous integration is on testing code, continuous delivery helps automate the software delivery process.
What is the Purpose of Continuous Integration?
The purpose of continuous integration is to find, evaluate, and solve problems in code for improvement. It also helps improve the quality of the software and reduces the time taken to validate and release code.
What is a Continuous Integration Server?
A continuous integration service (Build server) helps in managing the shared code repository. Also, it helps in evaluating the code that comes in.
When to Use Continuous Integration?
It is important to use continuous integration always (many times throughout the day). Basically, the goal of continuous integration is to ensure that no problems exist with the code.
