Continuous Integration

For this assignment we were introduced to a new practice in software development called Continuous Integration. The main objective is to commit changes frequently so that any errors are quickly detected and easy enough to solve. This builds the repository gradually instead of committing a huge change that it doesn’t look as the original and committing these changes can lead to clobbering of update changes.

To practice continuous integration, we are using Hudson. The creation of a new job within Hudson fell to my partner. From what I saw him do, the set up went good and we were up and running in no time. The other tasks that fell onto me were to initially build within Hudson and then create a small change from my local copy and committing it. This ensured that Hudson detected the changes and it worked as such. The next task is to commit a broken code and check if Hudson’s build report shows a failed build. I then received an email report saying it did so. Lastly, we fixed the bug and committed the changes and made sure that Hudson’s build is back to normal.

After a couple of days of using Hudson and practicing continuous integration, I find it as something I would definitely use in the future. Besides the automatic email notifications of any build failures, I find the logic behind small incremental changes as something that can improve any team based projects. This approach reminds me of the divide-and-conquer strategy which applies to the planning and then implementation of creating software.