What does Continuous Integration (CI) involve?

Continuous Integration (CI) is fundamentally about automating the integration of code changes from multiple contributors into a shared code repository. This process involves automatically fetching, building, and testing code every time there is a change made, which significantly enhances collaboration among team members. By automating these steps, CI helps in identifying issues early in the development cycle, improving code quality, and ensuring that the software is always in a releasable state.

CI typically uses specialized tools that can capture the latest code changes, trigger builds, and execute test cases as needed. This automation minimizes manual intervention, reduces the likelihood of errors during the merging process, and accelerates the feedback cycle for developers.

In contrast, options like manually merging code changes or creating project timelines are more associated with traditional development practices where manual processes are prevalent. Deploying code changes to production environments relates to Continuous Deployment (CD), which is a separate practice that builds on CI by focusing on delivering automated enhancements to users. Thus, automating code changes into a shared repository aligns perfectly with the core principles and advantages of Continuous Integration.