Continuous Integration - A comparison between theory and practice

Abstract: To develop software in a larger scale, some kind of software development method is needed to organize the development. Many different software development methods have emerged since the beginning of software development, and Continuous Integration (CI) is one of them. Many companies have applied, or tried to apply CI in their business. Some companies were successful, some were not. This thesis examines what CI is in the theory, and compare it to how it works in the practice in the department ”Product Development Traffic Control” (PD TC) which is a part of the ”Product Development Unit LTE Multistandard Radio” (PDU LMR) within Ericsson. The theory of CI is examined mostly through literature studies. CI in practice was examined through interviews with developers and employees working with the CI-machinery at PD TC. The comparison between the theory and the studied company revealed that it is difficult to adapt CI perfectly to a large organization. This does not imply that CI is implemented in the wrong way, but the benefits of implementing CI in large projects may not be as enormous in comparison with smaller projects.