Continuous Integration and Continuous Testing: How to Establish?

Continuous Integration (CI) and Continuous Testing (CT) are foundational practices in modern software development aimed at enhancing code quality and facilitating rapid software release cycles. CI involves regularly merging developer code changes into a central repository, triggering automated builds and tests to catch integration issues early, while CT ensures that every code change is automatically tested to assess business risks, providing immediate feedback. Both practices reduce integration risk, improve code quality, and support a streamlined Continuous Delivery (CD) pipeline, enabling frequent and reliable software updates. Key challenges include tool setup, test flakiness, resource consumption, and the cultural shift towards frequent code commits and a "fail fast, fix fast" mentality. Successful implementation requires selecting the right tools, such as Jenkins and testRigor, automating tests, and maintaining consistent test environments, which collectively support a continuous feedback loop that aids in early defect detection and minimizes release risks.