In modern software development, speed and agility are crucial when it comes to developing and releasing software. However, when you have a large team of developers working simultaneously, branching and merging code can become messy fast.
Therefore, teams need to have a process in place to implement multiple changes at once. This is where having an efficient branching strategy becomes a priority for these teams.
What is a branching strategy
Branches are primarily used as a means for teams to develop features giving them a separate workspace for their code. These branches are usually merged back to a master branch upon completion of work.
Why you need a branching strategy
- Enhance productivity by ensuring proper coordination among developers
- Enable parallel development
- Help organize a series of planned, structured releases
- Map a clear path when making changes to software through to production
- Maintain a bug-free code where developers can quickly fix issues and get these changes back to production without disrupting the development workflow
Git branching
Git and other version control systems give software developers the power to track, manage, and organize their code.
In particular, Git helps developers collaborate on code with teammates; combining powerful features like commits and branches with specific principles and strategies helps teams organize code and reduce the time needed to manage versioning.
This branching strategy consists of the following branches
- Master
- Develop
- Feature- to develop new features that branches off the develop branch
- Release- help prepare a new production release; usually branched from the develop branch and must be merged back to both develop and master
- Hotfix- also helps prepare for a release but unlike release branches, hotfix branches arise from a bug that has been discovered and must be resolved; it enables developers to keep working on their own changes on the develop branch while the bug is being fixed.
Trunk-based development
Trunk-based development is a branching strategy that in fact requires no branches but instead, developers integrate their changes into a shared trunk at least once a day. This shared trunk should be ready for release anytime.
The main idea behind this strategy is that developers make smaller changes more frequently and thus the goal is to limit long-lasting branches and avoid merge conflicts as all developers work on the same branch. In other words, developers commit directly into the trunk without the use of branches.
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