Continuous Integration

Although, considered a relatively new idea, the concept behind CI has been around for as long as development teams have been writing code.

The long standing problem for software development teams have been the integration of the new code and the stability of the application.

The integration would be so painful that many development teams would put off integration until they thought they were code complete.

The problem with that particular idea was no one could accurately predict how long it would take to complete the integration.

In some cases, the integration could take as long as the coding for a new release.

• Instant build feedback
• Reduced risk of code instability
• Easier and quicker bug detection and removal
• Allows for more deployments for testers and end-users

CruiseControl is a software build framework for continuous build processes.

It includes integration with many other build tools and various source control tools.

A gui interface is provided to view the details of the current and previous builds.

CruiseControl is distributed under a BSD-style license and is free for use.

CruiseControl is an open source code tool. Therefore, it makes the source code freely available.

• Continuous Integration - SCMWise CruiseControl
• SourceForge.net CruiseControl