Three Things that all Applications SHOULD Have

This is the second in a three part series:

1. Three Things that all Applications MUST Have
2. Three Things that all Applications SHOULD Have
3. Three Things that all Applications SHOULD WANT to Have

These three things are all generally agreed upon as being best practice, and few people will argue against their value. Unfortunately not all teams take the time to set them up. Again, I can not emphasize how much time these services will save you time in the long run, the earlier you set them up the more value they will return to you!

1. Dynamic Configuration

What the hell is "dynamic" configuration? It's configuration that is simply not not static or hard coded. Do not use constant strings or compiler symbols to configure your application! Start by using configuration files and build transforms. If your system is very distributed, consider using remote or discovered configuration.

• SlowCheetah - XML Transforms
• Scott Hanselman Blog Post

2. Continuous Integration

How do you know that the code in your source control is in a functional state? If not, who broke the build? Continuous integration is the practice of consistently pulling and building the projects in source control in an automated fashion. Typically these builds will also execute any tests associated with the project and provide reports for each build. This is crucial rapid development, and is a necessary first step on the road to continuous deployment.

• Set Up Continuous Integration with Team Foundation Server
• JetBrains Team City
• Jenkins CI

3. Automated Deployment

Before we can get to continuous deployment we have to start with automated deployment. This is simply the act of having a service that deploys your applications to an environment without the need for any significant human interaction; i.e. you can deploy with the click of a button! Automated deployment is extremely useful because it drastically speeds up deployments, prevents human error, and restricts access to different environments (such as production). Please, do not under estimate the value that a deployment system can provide!

• Octopus Deploy
• Red Gate Deployment Manager

Continue reading part 3: Three Things that all Applications SHOULD WANT to Have

Enjoy,
Tom