Designing Continuous Toolchains - Using Proposed Guidelines and Tool Capabilities

Abstract

Continuous delivery and deployment are both relatively new software practices that can help to deliver software faster. A toolchain is typically constructed by integrating a set of tools and practices to implement these continuous activities. The aim of this study is to help software organizations design continuous toolchains. This is achieved by providing guidelines that can ease the toolchain design as well as by both shedding light on what tool capabilities are desired and which tools are currently available to best support these capabilities. We conducted a case study where 17 industry professionals provided insights on what tools they use and how they design their continuous toolchains. A follow-up survey was then used to quantify the case study results. The survey gathered insights both on which tool capabilities are the most desired ones and moreover what current tools fulfill these capabilities. The synthesized results from both the case study and survey identified the toolchain structure, desired tool capabilities for each component of the toolchain and ranked them by importance. Recommendations for tools were given based on the tool capabilities importance. Guidelines for toolchain design were synthesized from the case study and provide general suggestions on how to maintain an efficient toolchain. Designing a continuous toolchain is no simple task. By mapping the capabilities presented in this study with organizational needs software organizations can utilize our findings when selecting suitable tools for their toolchain. To further strengthen the design of their continuous toolchain and its maintenance, companies should incorporate the proposed guidelines into their workflow.