Engineering
Best Practice: Ensure multiple development streams can be managed effectively
Sep 12, 2024
Managing multiple development streams needs to be a streamlined process for success. This best practice enables teams to work on various features, hotfixes, and enhancements simultaneously, fostering a collaborative environment where productivity thrives. By effectively managing these streams, you can ensure that your team operates without friction, delivering high-quality software rapidly and responsively.
Why Effective Management of Development Streams Matters
- Concurrent development: By managing multiple streams, your team can focus on different tasks without disrupting each other’s work. This parallel development accelerates progress, allowing for quicker feature releases and hotfixes.
- Rapid response to issues: A well-organized management strategy ensures that urgent issues can be addressed swiftly without waiting for ongoing features to complete. This agility is crucial for maintaining user satisfaction and trust.
- Minimised conflicts: Clear management reduces the risk of conflicts between various streams. Regular merging and a structured approach to branching help prevent integration headaches, allowing your team to concentrate on delivering value rather than resolving conflicts.
- Streamlined workflows: A structured approach provides clarity on the purpose and lifecycle of each development stream. This organisation keeps teams focused and aligned with project goals, driving efficiency and effectiveness.
Implementing This Best Practice
- Use feature toggles: Implement feature toggles to manage incomplete features in production environments. This allows teams to integrate new code safely while controlling which features are visible to users. It also enables gradual rollouts and thorough testing of new functionalities.
- Regularly merge branches: Schedule frequent merges to keep branches up to date and reduce the risk of complex merge conflicts. This practice ensures that all changes are integrated smoothly, enabling a healthier codebase.
- Define clear purposes and lifecycles: Ensure each development stream has a clearly defined purpose—whether it’s a feature branch for new functionalities, a hotfix branch for urgent issues, or an experimental branch for innovation. Communicate these purposes to the team to maintain focus and alignment.
- Establish a review process: Implement a structured code review process for merging changes. Peer reviews and automated testing contribute to maintaining high code quality and ensure that changes meet project standards before integration.
- Monitor dependencies: Track dependencies between different streams to prevent bottlenecks. This proactive monitoring allows your team to navigate potential issues before they escalate, ensuring a smooth development process.
Conclusion
Effectively managing multiple development streams is a critical best practice that enhances your team’s ability to deliver high-quality software efficiently. By employing strategies like feature toggles, regular merges, and clear purpose definitions for each stream, you empower your team to work concurrently without conflict. This approach not only boosts productivity but also fosters a more agile and responsive development environment.
