Software Configuration Management Best Practices for Continuous Integration

Continuous integration, while not a new concept, is rapidly being adopted as a key technology process in software development organizations as part of the shift towards Agile methodologies. Coupled with a robust Software Configuration Management (SCM) system and the proven best practices engineering managers, quality assurance managers and developers can use continuous integration to improve software quality, reduce costly rework due to broken builds, and ultimately increase the business value delivered to customers. This paper introduces the concept of continuous integration and outlines several proven SCM best practices.