What Development and Build Lifecycle Tools Do You Use?

Question

I'm working on transitioning my current project of about 20 developers to a modern development and build environment. We currently use an RCS based source control system and an associated issue tracking system, both with Motif UIs. There is no formal production build process, its just whatever works.

I'm interested in:

• Development Tools
• Version Control
• Issue Tracking
• Dependency Management
• Configuration Management
• Automated Building
• Automated Testing
• Continuous Integration
• Artifact Management
• Release Management
• Deployment Management
• Requirements Tracing
• What else?

I'm interested in not just which tools you use, but how well the integrate with each other, how easy they are to setup and use, and how both developers and management likes them. Our project is a combination of Java, C++, and VHDL, but I'd still like to hear from people with other languages. I'm currently going down the path of eclipse, subversion, trac, maven, hudson, and nexus.

Also, is there a better term than "Build Lifecycle" that encompasses not just building, but the flow of code from when the developer creates it to when its built, tested, and in a production system? "Build Lifecycle" seems limited, but "Project Lifecycle" is already taken.

Answer 1

I hate Maven less than I hate Ant, and for Java, you need to choose one of those evils. If you're just starting out, choose Maven, especially since you've already recognized that your "build lifecycle" encompasses 12 different and complex disciplines! You're going to have to choose conventions for all of them. Save yourself the trouble and go with the conventions Maven has already established.

For continuous integration and general build automation, I like Hudson.