Daily Build and Smoke Test,User Experience,Not Metrics翻译论文.doc

Daily Build and Smoke Test If you want to create a simple computer program consisting of only one file, you merely need to compile and link that one file. On a typical team project involving dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of files, however, the process of creating an executable program becomes more complicated and time consuming. You must build the program from its various components. A common practice at Microsoft and some other shrink-wrap software companies is the daily build and smoke test process. Every file is compiled, linked, and combined into an executable program every day, and the program is then put through a smoke test, a relatively simple check to see whether the product smokes when it runs. BENEFITS.?This simple process produces several significant benefits. It minimizes integration risk.?One of the greatest risks that a team project faces is that, when the different team members combine or integrate the code they have been working on separately, the resulting composite code does not work well. Depending on how late in the project the incompatibility is discovered, debugging might take longer than it would have if integration had occurred earlier, program interfaces might have to be changed, or major parts of the system might have to be redesigned and reimplemented. In extreme cases, integration errors have caused projects to be cancelled. The daily build and smoke test process keeps integration errors small and manageable, and it prevents runaway integration problems. It reduces the risk of low quality.?Related to the risk of unsuccessful or problematic integration is the risk of low quality. By minimally smoke-testing all the code daily, quality problems are prevented from taking control of the project. You bring the system to a known, good state, and then you keep it there. You simply dont allow it to deteriorate to the point where time-consuming quality problems can occur. It supports easier defect diagnosis.?When the product is built and tes