Continuous Deployment - Continuous Integration - page 200

TABLE 8-1 CI Practices Discussed in This Chapter

Practice Description

Release working
software any time,
any place

By running a fully automated build including compi-
lation, all tests, inspections, packaging, and deploy-
ment, you have the capability to release working
software at any time and in any known environment.

Label a repository's
assets

Label the files for your project in your version con-
trol repository. Typically, this is performed at the end
of a project milestone.

Produce a clean envi-
ronment

Remove all files, configuration changes, servers,
and anything else from your integration build machine
and ensure you can rebuild back to a state where
your integration build is successful. The more
scripted this process is, the better.

Label each build Label the binary artifacts of a build distribution in

your version control repository.

Run all tests Run all tests against the software. This includes

unit, component, system, functional, and perhaps
even performance, load, and other types of tests
that ensure the software is ready to be delivered (to
the next stage or even to production).

Create build feedback
reports

List the changes that were made in the most recent
build. This can be useful for other teams in the
delivery process, such as QA.

Possess capability to
roll back release

Something can always go wrong, so use your build
labels to roll back any changes that shouldn't have
been committed to the version control repository.

Questions

Are your deployments automated? How quickly are you able to get a
release out into production? How quickly are you able to get the soft-
ware into your development or test environment? Use these questions
to determine your project's capability to continuously deploy software.

■ Do you possess the capability to roll back a release?
■ Are you labeling your builds in your version control system?
■ Do you have a full set of automated tests that are followed by man-
ual tests of the release candidate afterward?
■ How does your team handle release fixes?