Team Development Concepts

Team Development Concepts

Modern team development technologies all share some basic concepts.  The key point is that activities that are normally simple and inconsequential for a single developer have impact and need management in a team development environment.

Code Repository

A repository is a centralized storage mechanism for all source code and other project resources. The storage system is often based on file system or database storage.

Version-Control

A repository should provide version control, such that revisions of existing code are non-destructive and a history of all revisions is maintained, including the developer that made the revision and the timestamp, as well as optional comments. Some technologies have mechanisms to even control versions on a more granular level, as well as mechanisms to identify specific versions readily and easily.

Asynchronous

Team development supports distributed, asynchronous development, such that developers may work on
their own local, offline copies of resources and at different times than other developers in the team. Developers may then synchronize their environment with the repository, submitting any revisions to the repository, as well as retrieving from the repository, new revisions created by other developers. Team development also supports conflict resolution in cases where developers have revised the same resource since their last synchronization with the repository.

Common Terminology

A list of common terms and their definitions in Team Development methodologies.

• Share (or sharing) - The act or command that allows a single developer to share their code with other developers.