Deployment Techniques

Abstract

Software projects often run into trouble when there’s no process in place to manage an application’s deployment. Typically, the software is built and deployed through a series of manual tasks that, most of the time, is not even written down. Let’s take a simple application as an example. Two developers are responsible for separate areas of the application, occasionally bumping into each other at integration points. Each developer compiles their code, runs simple tests (manually), and moves the source code either into a source control system or maybe just a common directory on a file server. Occasionally, a customer requires an updated version of the software. One of the developers packages the class files, updates their deployment descriptors, and copies it to the production application server.