Software Build and Release Management for a Wireless Product with Open
Jukka Kokko · Theseus (Ammattikorkeakoulujen) · 2013
The object of this research was to test and select the best open source tools and processes for a project working with a complex wireless device, from a build and release management point of view. Some of the investigations were started on 2005; most of the work has been done during the year 2013 for Elektrobit Wireless Oy. The work consisted of studying and testing out multiple different open source tools used on build and release management process. The studied tools were Git, SVN and Mercurial as software configuration management systems, Bitbake, Yocto, Apache ANT and Apache Maven as build frameworks, Gerrit and Review Board as code review systems and CruiseControl and Jenkins as build automation systems. Also hardware selection, test automation, error and feature management related tools, delivery methods and effects of the project’s development model were considered. The result was a bit mixed as the best combination of tools depends on the project, but for example a project that uses agile methods and does software for a wireless embedded Linux device should use Git as a software configuration management system, Yocto as a build framework, Gerrit as a code review system and Jenkins as a build automation system. This kind of selection was considered to be the best option even if most of the studied applications would have been adequate to use.