In-Depth Look at Continuous Integration Benefits in SharePoint 2010
December 28, 2011
We recently wrote about Andrew Connell’s list of suggested resources for your ALM and CI questions. In his post, the first suggestion for a ‘why’ introduction to the topic was Chris O’Brien’s “SharePoint 2010 Continuous Integration – Part 1: Benefits.” O’Brien points out a SharePoint environment adds some additional challenges and involvement to CI implementation contrary to what ease you may find in the .Net world. However, he identifies many benefits and argues that the positive feedback from users is evidence it is worth it. First, he points out where to start with CI:
Let’s be clear though – Continuous Integration (CI) is probably best suited to projects with the following characteristics: Development-oriented – perhaps with more than, say, 3 Visual Studio projects; Multiple developers; Fairly long-running (e.g. > 2-3 months; to give the team a chance to implement CI alongside the actual deliverables)
Some benefits include consistent builds, automated testing, and increased team cohesion through build notifications. The rest of the fairly lengthy article gives a great overview of CI benefits and what an implementation actually looks like. Links are also provided to the subsequent posts in the series which follow up with topics including TFS 2010 Build Processes and Using PowerShell to deploy WSPs from build output.
With ample staffing and ability investments into implementing the CI techniques, you can really make a big difference on SharePoint development projects. However, to add efficiency to your organization without the need for such training and research, consider Fabasoft Mindbreeze. Their out-of-the-box solution gives you mobility and information pairing:
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Consider their full suite of products and solutions at Fabasoft Mindbreeze.
Philip West, December 28, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
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Yes, it is ptinrealistac to not reveal the truth to these people. However, historically, we know we’ve rarely gotten these things right. I believe an excess of caution is warranted before taking any action that is irrevocable. Even if this means “protecting the tribes’ habitat” from loggers’ intrusions. Using a shared metaphor…the “Prime Directive” became a science fiction trope because of our own history. Yes, everyone forgets aliens are alien; human history and sociology will be inadequate guides to first contact with aliens. They are, however, good guides to first contacts between humans. First, there is the danger of our very common diseases, which we know can be deadly to isolated populations. Then there is a great deal of historical and current evidence that so called ‘primitive’ human cultures can suffer greatly when contacted by more complex ‘advanced’ cultures. (There are aspects of American culture that are corrosive to more traditional cultures. Heck, there are even groups of people in this country who pretend it is still 1950, or even 1850 in order to deal with daily life). And don’t forget, they know we’re watching. Our giant angry birds have already flown over them many times. So, I don’t think we can “protect” them forever; eventually, something will happen to accidentally, yet truly, reveal the outside world to these tribes. But, I do think a great deal of care, and study, should occur before actual contact.