Chapter 3. Practice 0: Source Code Management and Scripted Builds
Practices required for any development team larger than zero.
About Zero Practices
You’re probably wondering, “What’s the deal with these zero-level practices? Why not just start with one?” This is a book about Lean practices and, specifically, which practices give you the most bang for your buck.
However, there are some practices that you should be using whether you are trying to adopt Lean practices or not. These are not really Lean practices, but they are necessary prerequisites. That’s why we refer to them as zero-level practices.
If you’re not already using these practices, forget about everything else (for now), stop what you’re doing, and get with the program. Seriously, these are fundamental practices that you need to be following before you try any additional improvements.
The two zero-level practices we’re talking about here are source code management (SCM) and scripted builds.
Many books and articles talk about the tools you use to implement these practices but fail to address the common model of use behind them. In this chapter we give an overview of these important topics, along with a short synopsis of the functional side of each practice. In Appendix A you will find links to more in-depth material to help you implement these practices with the tool of your choice.
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