What is Continuous Integration In Agile?

Many Agile teams have experienced that moment when something works fine on a developer’s side but fails to function correctly once tested. In most cases, a small fix or adjustment leads to larger issues elsewhere in another part of the code or system. 

As a result, fixes take longer than anticipated to be completed, which makes all future releases seem more of a burden than a regular part of their workflow.

At this point, teams typically begin asking one very direct question: how do we identify problems earlier in the process and eliminate last-minute surprises?

Agile's goal is to be able to move quickly while maintaining stability. The purpose of an Agile team is to receive frequent updates, obtain quick feedback, and have peace of mind that the latest change(s) to a code base won't negatively affect, in any way, the previously functioning code.

Achieving this balance is very difficult when code is integrated late into a project or only tested at the final stages of development.

This article will explain why the benefits of using continuous integration (CI)  align so well with an Agile approach and how the successful application of CI allows for better collaboration between team members, quicker and better quality feedback, and more consistent and reliable product delivery without increasing the time it takes for participants to complete their tasks.

What is Agile?

Agile embraces the step-by-step method for application development, with work done in bite-sized increments and then corrected for customer needs.

Because changes are sometimes desired, the work is broken down into smaller chunks, making it easier for the developer to change or enhance the code.

Specific milestones are used to monitor the progress of developments at various levels, and customer feedback is essential to enhance the end product.

Since more flexibility and effective results occurred with this approach, many organizations adapted to the Agile approach and witnessed better outcomes than those achieved through traditional methods.

What is Continuous Integration?

Continuous Integration (CI), also known as integration managers, is a fundamental activity and is an important supporter of an agile approach to work.

It involves the creation and use of small pieces of software, with frequent additions to its code and validation across all SDLC phases.

Here’s how the process normally happens:

1. Requirements are broken down into bite-sized or manageable tasks and assigned to team members.

2. Developers code for a feature and then test the functionality of the code by making unit tests on their machine.

3. The code is often committed to a common repository with a system of versioning.

4. Every commit leads to the running of a series of tests, either manual or automatic, in order to ensure that the new code is compatible with existing functionality. This is important for checking the health of the overall product.

5. When all tests are passed, the code will be deemed production-ready.

This is continued throughout development, which makes it easy to add new functionality or improvements at any stage after the first release, without affecting the already established system.

What are the Advantages of Continuous Integration in Agile?

Continuous Integration helps Agile teams work faster and with fewer interruptions, which makes it easier for them to get things done.

Teams prevent unexpected consequences and long debugging cycles by frequently integrating code and checking changes early.

The final result is that working together is easier, feedback comes faster, and the product is more stable during development.

These are the main reasons why Continuous Integration is an important practice for Agile teams today.

1. Early Detection of Problems

Code gets tested as soon as it is added, and because of this, problems can be detected quickly and are simple and inexpensive to resolve.

2. Reduced Amount of Time Spent Fixing Bugs

Because of the incremental principle, developers find it easier to comprehend the incremental changes as opposed to making the large variations at once; therefore, the amount of time that the development team would have to spend debugging before the product is released will be decreased.

3. Developers Get Quick Feedback

Developers are able to find out within minutes of making a change to their code whether it worked or wasn't functioning properly. This provides them with the opportunity to fix any problems while they are still in their most current mindset.

4. Improved Collaboration Among Team Members

Through consistent integration, teams that integrate constantly will experience fewer code conflicts and be able to collaborate more easily.

5. More Stable Product Build

The product remains in a functional state, therefore, there will be fewer unexpected surprises when it reaches the QA phase or the release phase.

How to Implement a CI Pipeline for Agile Teams?

A CI pipeline does not have to be very complicated to implement. When implementing in an Agile team, the aim is to keep it simple, stable, and maintainable in order to achieve fast feedback and change.

This is how a CI pipeline can be implemented step by step:

1. Reuse a shared version control system

Begin with a central code library where all the programmers check in their code modifications regularly. Thus, all developers work with the same code, avoiding discrepancies at the last minute.

2. Divide work into small steps

In agile development, teams should make small, significant commits rather than commits with multiple large changes. This helps as small commits are easier to check, test, and debug in case any issue arises.

3. Automate builds

Configure the pipeline such that with each code commit, the build process is automatically initiated. This ensures that the application compiles or runs successfully with the changes introduced. Add automated tests early It is imperative that testing begin with unit testing and then incorporate integration testing. This is a form of test deployment that happens automatically after every single compilation of code. 

4. Fail fast and inform the team

When there is a failure during build or test, the pipeline should immediately stop and inform the team about the failure. It is helpful for programmers to know about the failure immediately after the change when the correction will be much easier to undertake.

5. Maintain a fast pipeline

The slower the pipeline, the less likely it is to be used often. The goal for an agile team would be to have fast builds and tests to get results in minutes, not hours.

6. Continuously Improve the Pipeline   

As the product matures, you should inspect the pipeline on a periodic basis. This helps add more comprehensive tests, eliminate unnecessary steps, as well as enhance performance capabilities to meet the ever-changing demands in agile development environments.

How were the Traditional SDLC Models?

The Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is a type of organized process utilized for the planning, building, testing, and maintenance of software.

It serves like a kind of roadmap, guiding the stages that teams will go through to deliver a software product.

The most commonly used SDLC approaches earlier were the Waterfall Model and the Spiral Model.

The Waterfall Model follows a direct series of operations: from requirement gathering to design and development, testing, and finally maintenance.

While this model is simple to understand, it has its limitations when the customer's requirements change, mainly due to the fact that modifications are really hard to incorporate once the design portion is over.

Many organizations, in turn, overcame this limitation by adopting the Spiral Model.

It introduces cycles in the development. The first cycle, as the name suggests, is about creating the very first or initial version of the product. Most of the time, this is called the Minimum Viable Product.

Later on, it will collect customer feedback, and if the product requires some changes to be made, it will continue the SDLC stages in order to build an improved version in the next cycle.

How Did Agile Come Into the Picture?

Before Agile gained momentum, software development was, for the most part, based on ideas borrowed from traditional engineering. 

Until the early 1980s, teams planned software in a rigid, step-by-step way.

In the same period of time, the need to automate mechanical systems became rapidly growing, thus bringing up strong competition between software companies.

Unfortunately, these traditional SDLC models were not good players in this environment due to their inability to change when requirements changed quickly.

The consequence was that many software products did not meet customer expectations or were not long-term stable.

The approach thus needed to enhance the strengths of prevailing SDLC models while enabling teams to quickly respond to change. In short, it was time for flexibility and responsiveness in the process of development.

Agile emerged to an extent as a combination of ideas from earlier models.

It took the structured flow of the Waterfall model, iterative learning from the Spiral model, and other such practices into a more adaptive and change-friendly way of building software.

How Does Continuous Integration Support Development and Testing Environments?

Although the basic concept of the Continuous Integration process has not changed, the process can be customized to meet the needs of the business. Most of the time, the code goes through various stages of development and validation.

It typically begins with the Development (DEV) environment, which serves as a sandbox or a development area where developers test and experiment with their code.

Once the local unit testing has been completed, the code is then moved to the DEV environment, where a compilation of various unit tests is carried out to ensure their compatibility.

Then follows the promotion of the code to the UAT or the Integration environment. The frequency of this step is dependent on the project environment.

In this phase, integration tests are performed to ensure that the newest functionalities are working smoothly with the existing functionalities. Sometimes, this environment can also be known as the ‘sanity environment.’

After satisfying all integration test checks, its code is labeled and marked as ready for deployment.

Through the above step-by-step and iterative process, Continuous Integration ensures that the product is developed in a way that reduces its development cycle while maintaining product stability.

Over the years, CI has become so closely associated with Agile that the two are often confused as the same thing. While they are not identical, this overlap highlights how effectively CI supports Agile development practices.

Conclusion

Continuous Integration is more than a technical process, it is an attitude that helps facilitate how Agile teams are intended to function. Code that is frequently integrated and tested helps teams spend less time fixing problems and more time focusing on adding value.

For Agile development teams, CI helps to establish a rhythm of small changes, quick feedback, and steady progress. It helps to enhance collaboration, establish confidence in every release, and handle changes without stress.

Properly implemented, Continuous Integration will become an invisible safety net operating in the background, working quietly to ensure stability while allowing for speed, and this is what Agile experts insist the team needs for its success.