Software Build and Release Specialist

Awhile back when I was implementing a particular build into the CI model, I ran into a dependency debate; both with my own as well as the development group.  The project (A) in question has a lib dependency on another project (B).   The difference in view came when I suggested for A to depend on latest successful build (from a label) of B.  The other parties were against my suggestion and argued that A should be depending on build B on an absolute term meaning A will always point to the latest and greatest of B.

The problem for the latter argument is that A fails whenever B fails because there is no safety net for A.  As I was being overwhelmingly outnumbered, I caved in to the second suggestion which is to have A directly point to B‘s latest and greatest build.  Well, suffice it to say the decision came back to bite us.

We got bitten and yours truly had to spend additional time in fixing and changing the build scripts to adopt my original suggestion.  Now whenever B has a successful build, the script slaps on a label for A to point and consume.  This way we successfully ensure A will have the freshest dependency on B while avoiding unnecessary broken builds due to “tip” dependency.