How to properly use Git branches to improve code quality

This guide describes how to use branches, branch permissions and merge requests to improve source code quality with Buddy.

Objectives of this guide

With this guide you’ll be able to:

• Get familiar with Git workflow and understand the link between this approach and quality assurance processes.
• Understand the concept of a branch, branch permission and merge request and their role in Git workflow.
• Find out how to employ the above tools in your project to improve the quality of your code.
• Learn how to easily set up branches and run merge requests to follow the industry standards and improve your development process.

Code review — the right tool to improve quality

Code reviews allow you to:

• Detect errors faster, at an early stage of the development process.
• Improve code transparency and consistency.
• Follow industry standards and best practices concerning the code.
• Educate the development team and spark the collaboration.

When should you schedule your code review? Before you introduce any major change into the application. And this is where branches come in handy.

Branches and merge requests in Buddy

Every new feature or smaller change, every bug fix you’re working on, should form a separate branch, ready to access and review by someone responsible for marking your code as “checked and approved” and integrating it with the application. With Buddy you can work with any number of branches, at different development stages and with different access rights (permissions) and coordinate the merging process using merge requests.

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