Introducing Continuous Integration - Continuous Integration - page 34

CI is not just the process of gathering a few scripts together and
running them all the time. In the preceding scenario, it's great that Joan
wrote those automation scripts, but in order for them to actually add
value to the end product, they must be added to the version control
repository and made a working part of the build process. Figure 2-2
illustrates the steps to making a process continuous.
These steps can be applied one by one to virtually every activity
you conduct on a project.

• Identify —Identify a process that requires automation. The pro-
cess may be in the areas of compilation, test, inspection, deploy-
ment, database integration, and so on.
• Build —Creating a build script makes the automation repeatable
and consistent. Build scripts can be constructed in NAnt for the
.NET platform, Ant for the Java platform, and Rake for Ruby,
just to name a few.
• Share —By using a version control system such as Subversion,
you make it possible for others to use these scripts/programs.
Now the value is being spread consistently across the project.
• Make it continuous —Ensure that the automated process is run
with every change applied, using a CI server. If your team has
the discipline, you can also choose to manually run the build
with every change applied to the version control system.

Here is an acrostic to help you remember and communicate this: “ I
B uild S o C onsistently”—for I dentify, B uild, S hare, and C ontinuous.
Aim for incremental growth in your CI system. This is simple to
implement, the team gets more motivated as each new item is added,
and you can better plan what you need next based on what's working

Identify Build Share Continuous

Getting to CI— “ IB uild S o C onsistently ”

FIGURE 2-2