Frequent code check-in no relation continuous testing
Costs and benefits
Continuous integration is intended to produce benefits such as:Integration bugs are detected early and are easy to track down due to small changesets. This saves both time and money over the lifespan of a project.
Avoids last-minute chaos at release dates, when everyone tries to check in their slightly incompatible versions
When unit tests fail or a bug emerges, if developers need to revert the codebase to a bug-free state without debugging, only a small number of changes are lost (because integration happens frequently)
Constant availability of a "current" build for testing, demo, or release purposes
Frequent code check-in pushes developers to create modular, less complex codeWith continuous automated testing, benefits can include:Enforces discipline of frequent automated testing
Immediate feedback on the system-wide impact of local changes
Software metrics generated from automated testing and CI (such as metrics for code coverage, code complexity, and feature completeness) focus developers on developing functional, quality code, and help develop momentum in a teamSome downsides of continuous integration can include:
no relation