Five Software Build Patterns

Aug 26, 2008 • Julian Simpson

(image taken from Laineys Photostream)

We live in a world of patterns. Some very clever people have been identifying and naming patterns in software for a long time now. In build and deployment, we're just beginning. Here's five:

1. Aslak Hellesøy kicks things off with Immediate Test Failure Notification. If you've ever had to sit through a long CI build and then find out a test failed for some really crappy reason, you'll like this one.
2. Jon Tirsen introduces the Fast and the Full Builds. When your full build seems to take hours, you might break this one out.
3. Sam Newman gives us the Checkin Gate. Otherwise known as the Checkin Dance. See also Movable Checkin Gate.
4. The Build Doctor prescribes the Amnesiac CI Build. Oh, and he also scrawled down Captive Build Tool.
5. Parumu gives us (among others) Binary Deliverable - one big monolith of deployment. Unsubtle but very predictable.

There must be more. If you have any suggestions I'd love to hear them. Comment here or drop a line to 'medic@build-doctor.com' ...