Eric Pugh Richmond

Continuous Integration

- A Framework for Better Quality Software

Richmond SPIN

May 13th, 2009

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Continuous Integration RICHMOND, May 13, 2009

Principal of OpenSource Connections

Contributer to CruiseControl and Continuum CI projects

Member of Apache Software Foundation

Presenter at many conferences including OSCON, ApacheCON, jTDS, ExpoQA

Fascinated by the art of software development

Who am I?

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Continuous Integration RICHMOND, May 13, 2009

What are we talking about?

What is CI?

Why does it matter to me?

What do I need to use CI?

Demonstration of Hudson

Where does CI fit into the SPIN World?

Questions!

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Continuous Integration RICHMOND, May 13, 2009

What is Continuous Integration?

http://martinfowler.com/articles/continuousIntegration.html

From Martin Fowler:

“a fully automated and reproducible build, including testing, that runs many times a day”.

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Continuous Integration RICHMOND, May 13, 2009

Rapid Feedback

< 10 minutos

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Continuous Integration RICHMOND, May 13, 2009

How is CI important to different members of a team?

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Continuous Integration RICHMOND, May 13, 2009

Life of a programmer without CI...

Unstable code, integration is difficult

Many build errors reported

Only one person on the team can build the entire project

Demonstrations require extensive planning

Feedback cycle is long

Every day is a struggle to be productive

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Continuous Integration RICHMOND, May 13, 2009

Life of a programmer with CI...

The build process is simple and repeatable

Elimination of Human Error

Demo’s are quick and easy

Feedback cycle is very rapid

Every day you know you can code!

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Continuous Integration RICHMOND, May 13, 2009

For a tester

What is in the build?

What has changed between builds?

How do I verify functionality?

control

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Continuous Integration RICHMOND, May 13, 2009

For a Project Manager

Visibility

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Continuous Integration RICHMOND, May 13, 2009

For a Project Manager

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Continuous Integration RICHMOND, May 13, 2009

For a development team

security

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Continuous Integration RICHMOND, May 13, 2009

For a development team

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Continuous Integration RICHMOND, May 13, 2009

For a development team

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Continuous Integration RICHMOND, May 13, 2009

For a development team

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Continuous Integration RICHMOND, May 13, 2009

What is needed to get started?

A dedicated machine

Source Control

Automated Build Script

Method of notification

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Continuous Integration RICHMOND, May 13, 2009

What are the challenges to using CI?

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Continuous Integration RICHMOND, May 13, 2009

Challenge One: Cultural Change

CI needs a champion who acts as the ambassador to the leaders of the organization.

Thought leaders in the organization who can help encourage developers to accept the process changes that CI brings

A very successful test case

¿A greenfield project if possible?

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Continuous Integration RICHMOND, May 13, 2009

Challenge Two: Environmental Difficulties

All the tests should be true unit tests, not integration tests

Few or no external dependencies

A beefy build server...

A strategy for deploying code into the CI environment

Database changes are SIMPLE

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Challenge Three: Project Characteristics

Fewer branches to the code makes life easier

Many small code changes. Code is committed throughout the day.

There are good unit test coverage.

The code is ready for deployment, not in pieces.

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Continuous Integration RICHMOND, May 13, 2009

Challenge Four: Stability of CI Tool

The CI system must be as well maintained as the Source Control system.

The CI system performs builds very quickly.

Who has responsibility for CI? It’s very important to have a “throat to choke”.

No false alarms. If there are false alarms then the developers lose confidence in the CI system.

✓

X

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Continuous Integration RICHMOND, May 13, 2009

Demo of Hudson

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Continuous Integration RICHMOND, May 13, 2009

Where does CI fit into the SPIN World?

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Continuous Integration RICHMOND, May 13, 2009

CI Maturity Model?

Fewer branches to the code makes life easier

Many small code changes. Code is committed throughout the day.

There are good unit test coverage.

The code is ready for deployment, not in pieces.

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http://www.anthillpro.com/blogs/anthillpro-blog/2009/05/05/1241542860000.html

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Continuous Integration RICHMOND, May 13, 2009

Virtuous Circle?

Metrics are hard to get

Developers rebel against on high management

Need good processes that support and encourage other good processes

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HackyStat

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Continuous Integration RICHMOND, May 13, 2009

Test Automation

CI increases the rewards for doing test automation

unit

integration

functional?

system?

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Continuous Integration RICHMOND, May 13, 2009

Where to next?

Continuous Integration: Improving Software Quality and Reducing Risk

CITConf is the conference for CI. This year it was April 24, 25 in Minneapolis, MN.

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Take a handout with reference links!

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Continuous Integration RICHMOND, May 13, 2009

Matrix of 22 differences in CI systems

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http://confluence.public.thoughtworks.org/display/CC/CI+Feature+Matrix

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Continuous Integration RICHMOND, May 13, 2009

Why CI?

Eliminate human errors

Tests that run frequently are more valuable

A CI system is the foundation of a project status dashboard

Eliminate integration problems!

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Eric Pugh epugh@opensourceconnections.com RICHMOND

May 13th, 2009

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