Best Practices For Build And Release Management

Infrastructure

  1. Get a production-grade build and release management system software. A build and release management system that dies every hour is no good.
  2. Dedicate the fastest hardware money can buy. Faster hardware produces quicker response about quality of changes.
  3. Make sure your product can be built from a command line. It should be able to build in unattended, batch mode. Build scripts should be location-independent.
  4. Store build scripts and dependencies in a version control system. Everyone should be able to reproduce build breakage at given time.

People

  1. You don't break the build only if you don't do anything. It is OK to break the build from time to time. It is NOT OK to leave it broken.
  2. Always claim build breakage. People will appreciate knowing that the breakage is being taken care about, and will do same for you.
  3. Avoid build breakage patterns: Five O'clock Checkin, Spoiled Fruit and Small Change. This alone will reduce build breakage by 50%.
  4. Establish fun, non-insulting ritual for hailing build breakers. Buying donuts to the team works well!

Related Articles