continuous integration
The agile software development practice of integrating software changes continuously. In practice, this means that developers integrate their changes every few hours to days. Continuous integration often includes the practice of an automated build that is triggered by each check in. The build process typically runs all the automated tests an may even run tests that aren't run before check in because they take too long. The build is considered to have "failed" if any tests fail. When the build fails, teams typically consider getting the build working again to be the top priority; only code changes aimed at fixing the build are allowed until a successful build has occured.
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