Build success rate
What is build success rate?
Build success rate is a measure used in software development to gauge the efficiency and reliability of the automated build process. It is defined as the percentage of builds that complete successfully without errors out of the total builds attempted over a given period. To calculate the build success rate, you divide the number of successful builds by the total number of builds attempted and then multiply the result by 100 to get a percentage. This metric is crucial as it provides immediate feedback on the health of code changes and the build process.
Why is build success rate important?
Ensures code stability. Each successful build indicates that recent changes in the codebase do not adversely affect existing functionalities. A high build success rate is indicative of a stable and reliable development environment, which is essential for continuous integration and efficient software development.
Improves team confidence. Developers rely on a robust automated build process to validate their code changes. A high build success rate boosts the confidence of the development team, as it reassures them that their new commits are error-free and compatible with the existing codebase.
Reduces development costs. Frequent build failures can lead to increased costs in terms of time and resources spent troubleshooting and fixing issues. Maintaining a high build success rate helps in identifying and addressing issues early in the development cycle, thereby reducing the cost implications associated with delayed problem resolution.
What are the limitations of build success rate?
Does not measure code quality. Build success rate solely focuses on whether the build process completes successfully without accounting for the quality of the underlying code. High build success rates can sometimes be misleading if the code quality is poor or if the build process is not comprehensive.
Sensitive to flaky tests. The reliability of the build success rate metric can be compromised by flaky tests, which pass or fail intermittently without changes to the code. This can lead to a lower perceived build success rate that does not accurately reflect the stability of the build process or the code.
Lacks insight into build content. While build success rate provides a quantitative measure of build stability, it does not offer insights into the content or complexity of the builds. Large, complex builds may be more prone to failures, which this metric does not specifically account for.
Metrics related to build success rate
Build time. Build time refers to the duration it takes to complete a build process from start to finish. This metric is directly related to build success rate as longer build times can increase the likelihood of failures due to various factors like system timeouts or resource bottlenecks. Efficient management of build time can lead to improvements in build success rate by minimizing these risks.
Test pass rate. Test pass rate measures the percentage of automated tests that pass successfully as part of the build process. It is closely linked to the build success rate because a high test pass rate usually correlates with a high build success rate. Improving the test pass rate can directly influence and enhance the build success rate.
Deployment success rate. Deployment success rate evaluates the percentage of successful deployments to production or staging environments. While build success rate focuses on the initial stages of the pipeline, deployment success rate provides a later-stage perspective. A high build success rate often contributes to a high deployment success rate, making these two metrics interdependent and crucial for assessing the overall health of software development and deployment processes.
