How do you document decisions and architecture for Branching strategies?

Documenting Decisions and Architecture for Branching Strategies

Documenting decisions and architecture for branching strategies is essential for any development team that wants to maintain coherence and efficiency throughout their project lifecycle. Branching strategies help to manage source code versions effectively, ensuring that teams can work simultaneously on different features or fixes without conflicting with each other. It's important to describe the rationale behind the chosen strategy, as well as how it integrates with overall project management practices.

Key areas to focus on include the type of branching strategy used (e.g., Git Flow, Feature Branching, Trunk-Based Development), the rules around when and how branches should be created and merged, and the roles of team members in this process. Additionally, documenting how branching strategies integrate with CI/CD pipelines further enriches the understanding of the workflow.

        // Example of a branching strategy document
        /**
         * Branching Strategy: Git Flow
         * 
         * This document outlines the main principles of our branching strategy.
         * 
         * 1. Master: The main production branch that should always contain stable code.
         * 2. Develop: The integration branch for features.
         * 3. Features: New features are developed in separate feature branches off of 'develop'.
         * 4. Hotfix: Quick patches are made using hotfix branches created from 'master'.
         * 
         * Workflow:
         * - Create a feature branch from 'develop'
         * - After development, merge into 'develop'
         * - For releases, merge 'develop' into 'master'
         * - Use Pull Requests for code review and ensuring quality.
         */