Branching and Merging Practices

Development teams frequently get wrapped around the tree when it comes to branching. It’s easy to lose track of code in a dense tree and even easier to release code that you didn’t mean to release. While branching can get complicated, there are some basic branching structures that can be applied to most of the common scenarios to help untangle you. In this session, learn the three basic branching structures and several of the most common variations to help ease promotion models and deployment scenarios. Learn best practices and how to avoid “gotchas” that can derail an entire release. At the end of this session you will be able to determine which branching pattern is most effective for your particular scenario and walk through how to perform code promotion (including bug fixes, hot fixes and multiple releases) for each branching pattern. After applying these principles you will be able to streamline your release process and code promotion process and reduce unintended bugs in released software.