Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
risk
—The potential for a problem to occur. A risk that has been
realized is known as a
problem.
We focus on the higher-priority
risks (damage to our interests and goals) that have the highest
likelihood of occurring.
testing
—The general process of verifying that software works as
designed. Furthermore, we define developer tests into multiple
categories, such as unit tests, component tests, and system tests,
all of which verify that objects, packages, modules, and the soft-
ware system work as designed. There are many other types of
tests, such as functional and load tests, but from a CI perspective,
all unit tests written by developers, at a minimum, are executed as
a part of a build (although builds may be staged to run fast tests
first followed by slower tests).
At a high level, the value of CI is to:
• Reduce risks
• Reduce repetitive manual processes
• Generate deployable software at any time and at any place
• Enable better project visibility
• Establish greater confidence in the software product from the
development team
Let's review what these principles mean and what value they offer.
Reduce Risks
By integrating many times a day, you can reduce risks on your project.
Doing so facilitates the detection of defects, the measurement of soft-
ware health, and a reduction of assumptions.
•
Defects are detected and fixed sooner
—Because CI integrates
and runs tests and inspections several times a day, there is a greater
chance that defects are discovered
when they are introduced
(i.e.,
