Extending Branch/Merge Strategy to Database Changes

The database is often an afterthought in Agile development. Application developers perfect how best to implement a solution in code, but tend to spend too little time on representing that solution in the database. This is unfortunate given that 65% of your change requests require changes to the database schema. This finding implies that database changes are every bit as important as the application code, and should be treated as tier-one artifacts in your software release process.

The process and tools for making and managing database schema changes have not changed in years. Changes to application schema still rely on manually writing SQL scripts, which are time-consuming, difficult to manage, require manual intervention during deployments, and increase uncertainty about the state of the database.

Learn how to implement Agile development for your database changes in two steps.