5
leader typically does this more formal level of integration. Important activities that occur at this
integration point include:
• All unit tests are executed across the entire application.
• When the application has passed all tests, it is then “versioned”.
It is recommended that this integration cycle occur at least once a week. A nice summary of the
release and version cycle is, Release frequently and version often.
Proponents of Extreme Programming talk about “continuous integration.” Although not always
explicitly mentioned in this paper, the concept of continuous integration is implied. Developers
must push their code to the team as quickly as possible, and should incorporate team changes
into their code as quickly as possible. While some of the principals of Extreme Programming
will be referenced in this discussion, a full explanation is beyond the scope of this paper. More
information about Extreme Programming can be found in the References section below.
Development Test Integration
Development Test Integration has two primary objectives:
• Flush out any differences between the development environment and the production
environment.
• Test the deployment of the application.
It is recommended that the development group has its own machine/node on which to deploy its
application. This development environment should reasonably match the production
environment; at a minimum, it should have the same application server edition, version, etc., run
on the same operating system (including patches, etc.), and use the same database product. The
unit tests are run again in this environment.
In WebSphere Studio Application Developer 4.0, development will most likely be based on the
WebSphere Application Server 4.0 Advanced Single Server Edition, which is the test server that
is “inside” of WebSphere Studio Application Developer. A production server will most likely be
either WebSphere Application Server Advanced Edition or Enterprise Edition. Also, WebSphere
Studio Application Developer is typically run on Windows, while the production environment
will often be UNIX. The unit tests run on the platform used in Development Test Integration
will test any subtle differences between the WebSphere Application Server editions, as well as
any differences due to a different operating system.
Finally, the process to deploy the application into a WebSphere Application Server is also tested
at this stage. This test could be as simple as testing the installation instructions, or as complex as
creating and testing a script that will install the application. More on this later.
