Trunk-Based Development — TBD
Trunk-based development (TBD) is a branching model and methodology for software development where development teams merge every new feature, bug fix, or other code change to one central branch in the version control system. This one branch is called “trunk,” “mainline,” or in GitHub, “main.”
Trunk-based development makes it easy to satisfy the “everyone on the development team commits to the trunk at least every 24 hours” requirement of continuous integration and lays the foundation for the codebase to be releasable at any time, as is necessary for continuous delivery and continuous deployment.
Foundational Principles of Trunk-Based Development:
1. Single Source of Truth: TBD revolves around the concept of a single, authoritative codebase known as the trunk or mainline. This central repository serves as the definitive source for all development efforts, fostering transparency, consistency, and alignment across the team.
2. Continuous Integration: A cornerstone of TBD is the practice of continuously integrating changes into the trunk. This ensures that new code is merged frequently, reducing integration conflicts, and enabling rapid feedback loops.
3. Small, Incremental Changes: Developers adhere to the principle of making small, focused changes to the codebase. By breaking down tasks into bite-sized increments, developers can iterate more quickly, maintain code quality, and minimize the risk of introducing errors.
4. Automated Testing: TBD places a strong emphasis on automated testing to validate code changes. Comprehensive test suites are leveraged to detect regressions, ensure code correctness, and maintain overall system reliability.
5. Code Reviews: Peer code reviews are integral to the TBD workflow, providing opportunities for knowledge sharing, mentorship, and quality assurance. Code reviews help identify potential issues early in the development process, fostering a culture of collaboration and continuous improvement.
Advantages of Trunk-Based Development:
1. Collaborative Efficiency: By working directly on the trunk(main line), developers can collaborate more effectively, sharing insights, resolving conflicts, and leveraging collective expertise to drive project success.
2. Reduced Time-to-Market: TBD enables organizations to deliver features and updates to users more rapidly by streamlining the development and deployment process. This agility is essential for staying competitive in fast-paced markets.
3. Improved Code Quality: Continuous integration, automated testing, and peer code reviews contribute to higher code quality and reliability. By identifying and addressing issues early, TBD helps minimize technical debt and mitigate risks.
4. Enhanced Visibility and Transparency: With all development activities occurring on the trunk, project status, progress, and potential bottlenecks are readily visible to all team members. This transparency fosters accountability and facilitates effective communication.
5. Flexibility and Adaptability: TBD promotes a flexible and adaptable development environment, enabling teams to respond quickly to changing requirements, market dynamics, and customer feedback.
Considerations for Adoption:
There are two key features of TBD to consider when deciding whether or not to implement it. First, TBD supports moving very quickly. Second, it’s very trusting of developers: no matter what they do, they are trusted to not break the build. These are commonly espoused as benefits of trunk-based development — and they are — but no system works perfectly for everyone.
Conclusion: Trunk-based development offers a powerful framework for maximizing collaboration, efficiency, and innovation in software engineering. By embracing the principles of TBD and leveraging modern development practices, organizations can accelerate their software delivery capabilities, drive business value, and thrive in an ever-evolving digital landscape.
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