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Continuous Integration

TL;DR;

continuous integration is a key DevOps practice that allows frequent code integration and automated testing, enabling rapid software delivery with reduced bugs and issues. It relies on version control, test automation and continuous processes.

Definition​

Continuous integration (CI) is a software development practice where developers regularly merge their code changes into a shared repository, after which automated builds and tests are run.

Goals​

  • Detect errors and bugs early through frequent automated testing
  • Improve software quality through regular code integration and testing
  • Reduce time to validate and release new updates by automating build and test processes
  • Improve developer productivity by reducing integration issues

Practices​

  • Maintaining a code repository (e.g. Git) for developers to regularly commit code
  • Automatically building the code and running tests whenever changes are committed
  • Quickly fixing any issues that are detected by automated tests
  • Frequently integrating code changes from multiple developers rather than long integration periods
  • Extensive use of test automation, including unit, integration and acceptance tests
  • Providing rapid feedback on build and test results to developers
  • Using a CI server or cloud service to automate the build, test and reporting process