1.2.4 Continuous Integration Flashcards
What is Continuous Integration?
Delivery of a product increment requires reliable, working, integrated software at the end of every sprint. Continuous integration addresses this challenge by merging all changes made to the software and integrating all changed components regularly, at least once a day. Configuration management, compilation, software build, deployment, and testing are wrapped into a single, automated, repeatable process. Since developers integrate their work constantly, build constantly, and test constantly, defects in code are detected more quickly.
What does the continuous integration process consists of?
Static code analysis: executing static code analysis and reporting results
Compile: compiling and linking the code, generating the executable files
Unit test: executing the unit tests, checking code coverage and reporting test results
Deploy: installing the build into a test environment
Integration test: executing the integration tests and reporting results
Report (dashboard): posting the status of all these activities to a publicly visible location or e-
mailing status to the team
How does continuous integration allows Agile testers to run automated tests regularly?
An automated build and test process takes place on a daily basis and detects integration errors early and quickly.
Continuous integration allows Agile testers to run automated tests regularly, in some cases as part of the continuous integration process itself, and send quick feedback to the team on the quality of the code. These test results are visible to all team members, especially when automated reports are integrated into the process.
Automated regression testing can be continuous throughout the iteration.
Good automated regression tests cover as much functionality as possible, including user stories delivered in the previous iterations.
Good coverage in the automated regression tests helps support building (and testing) large integrated systems. When the regression testing is automated, the Agile testers are freed to concentrate their manual testing on new features, implemented changes, and confirmation testing of defect fixes.
In addition to automated tests, organizations using continuous integration typically use?
In addition to automated tests, organizations using continuous integration typically use build tools to implement continuous quality control.
In addition to running unit and integration tests, such tools can run additional static and dynamic tests, measure and profile performance, extract and format documentation from the source code, and facilitate manual quality assurance processes.
This continuous application of quality control aims to improve the quality of the product as well as reduce the time taken to deliver it by replacing the traditional practice of applying quality control after completing all development.
What can build tools be used for?
Build tools can be linked to automatic deployment tools, which can fetch the appropriate build from the continuous integration or build server and deploy it into one or more development, test, staging, or even production environments.
This reduces the errors and delays associated with relying on specialized staff or programmers to install releases in these environments.
Continuous integration can provide the following benefits:
Continuous integration can provide the following benefits:
Allows earlier detection and easier root cause analysis of integration problems and conflicting
changes
Gives the development team regular feedback on whether the code is working
Keeps the version of the software being tested within a day of the version being developed
Reduces regression risk associated with developer code refactoring due to rapid re-testing of
the code base after each small set of changes
Provides confidence that each day’s development work is based on a solid foundation
Makes progress toward the completion of the product increment visible, encouraging
developers and testers
Eliminates the schedule risks associated with big-bang integration
Provides constant availability of executable software throughout the sprint for testing,
demonstration, or education purposes
Reduces repetitive manual testing activities
Provides quick feedback on decisions made to
improve quality and tests
However, continuous integration is not without its risks and challenges:
Continuous integration tools have to be introduced and maintained
The continuous integration process must be defined and established
Test automation requires additional resources and can be complex to establish
Thorough test coverage is essential to achieve automated testing advantages
Teams sometimes over-rely on unit tests and perform too little system and acceptance testing
Continuous integration requires the use of tools, including tools for testing, tools for automating the
build process, and tools for version control.