13 April 2007

3rd generation Continious Integration tools

New Agile software development methodologies require new tools. The first generation of tools such as JUnit and Ant provided an easier and faster "develop-test-deploy" cycle which can speed up development enormously and included testing.
The second generation of tools -in my opinion- was started with the Continious Integration tool CruiseControl (backed by Martin Fowler) that focused on an extra step in the development process, what I would call the "automated develop-test-deploy".
The newest generation (what I would call "3rd generation") of continuous integration tools brings some major improvements over well-established tools like CruiseControl: they offer a lot more functionality that speed up development even more, and checking the quality in the same time. I found this excellent overview/comparision overview of new generation tools that could help you choose one.

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