For a while now, we’ve required code reviews for all changes before they could be merged into a team’s trunk fork. This helped catch some obvious stuff and helped increase code quality. This stuff seems obvious but when it’s not part of the culture, it seems like a big feat.

The next step was to require the code to build before it could be merged. We implemented this about a month ago and so far it’s been a pretty smooth transition. Bamboo picks up the branches (annoyingly, it will build a newly created branch even if there are no commits but that’s another matter), build all of the solutions, and report the status to Stash. If the build fails, the pull request can’t be merged. Progress.

Next, we need to implement unit tests. One team has gotten that working in their fork so it’s just a matter of time to get the changes merged.

This is all text book stuff and it’s been neglected for a while, but it’s good to see us begin to enhance our process. It means more work for me, but it also means that there are less firedrills because less issues will slip through the cracks and into customers hands. I came from QA and I know what it’s like to be in the room with a pissed off manager, pissed off support agent, and a pissed off customer and it feels like it’s all your fault because you missed something.