The rapid growth in the size and complexity of today’s software makes efficient development and management challenging. Version control programs play a critical role in increasing the success rate of large-scale projects by reducing errors and speeding up development with the ability to record, merge and synchronize work, and roll back.
Today, the size of software is growing exponentially. The increasing power and pervasiveness of computers and the Internet has led to a significant increase in the number of users, and many tasks are being performed on computers. With these technological advances and changes in the environment, users are demanding more and more features, faster speed, more accurate, and more secure software. To meet these expectations, software has grown in size and complexity. For example, Windows NT 3.1, released in 1993, consisted of 4 to 5 million lines of code (LOC), while Windows XP, released in 2001, is nearly 45 million LOC. This illustrates how quickly software is growing in size.
As software has gotten bigger, the development process has also gotten more complex, and projects that were initially done by individuals or a small group of people have grown to include dozens to hundreds or more developers. This shift has increased the time and cost of development, while also making it more difficult to manage and maintain the workforce, making successful software completion a challenge. In fact, the average success rate for software projects over the past five years has been around 30%, while the success rate for large projects is only around 8%. To combat this low success rate and maintain an efficient development process, tools to automate project management and troubleshooting have been developed, including version control programs, issue tracking and management tools, and continuous integration (CI) tools. Among these, version control programs, represented by Git and Subversion, are very useful for solving problems related to the maintenance of projects.
In this article, we’ll discuss three of the main features that version control programs offer and the benefits they provide, so that you can better understand the importance of version control and its role in software development.
First, the ability to record and track work
Version control programs keep a record of everything that happens to your project in the public workspace. From the smallest typo correction to the largest folder-by-folder creation and deletion, your actions are recorded and must be approved by the project manager with an accompanying commentary to reflect this. Software development can be analogized to the process of multiple architects working together to finalize a single set of plans. When we say “contribute their work to the common workspace,” we’re talking about one architect submitting drafts and revised plans to the entire project manager.
Example
Title: Install additional first floor lobby windows
Description: Install additional windows to improve light and ventilation in the first floor lobby.
Your manager will review the draft and revised plans, and if they look good, they’ll make the changes. If they don’t understand the clarification or think it’s unnecessary, they discuss it with the architect to decide whether it should be finalized. During this process, the version control program systematically records “drafts,” “revised plans,” “discussions,” “authors,” and so on, so that questions like “who worked on this part” and “why was this part designed this way” can be easily answered later.
With a record like this, you can reduce the cost and time of fixing errors or unnecessary changes. This process makes maintenance more efficient and helps developers avoid major problems in their projects.
Second, merge and synchronization capabilities
A large software project consists of many independent parts, each of which performs a specific function. For example, even simple game software is divided into modules that output to the screen, modules that handle sound, modules that manage the flow of the game, modules that read and store data, and so on. These different modules must work independently and simultaneously reflect each other’s changes, which is a very complex and error-prone synchronization task.
Version control programs provide powerful merge and synchronization capabilities in these situations. For example, after one developer updates a particular screen in game software, another developer cannot see that change on their screen until their work is reflected. To make it easier for other workers to reflect the new content and avoid conflicts or duplicate work in the process, version control programs provide the ability to merge and update their work. This is an essential feature for managing large projects where independent work can be done in parallel.
Third, project recovery and rollback capabilities
As projects progress, there are often situations where you need to replace an existing feature with a new one, or revert to the way things were before an error occurred. In these cases, version control programs provide the ability to go back to a specific point in the project, making error recovery and upgrades easy.
For example, if you were painting a black wall white and accidentally painted over a window, it would be more efficient to revert to the state before you started painting rather than trying to repair the window again. A version control program simplifies error recovery in this way, and further development can be more organized.
The importance and utility of version control
The automated features provided by version control programs solve many of the problems that arise as software grows in size. They help developers focus on core tasks, making projects more productive and improving quality. They can be applied not only to large-scale software development, but also to a variety of computer-based tasks such as documentation, Photoshop, and smaller projects for assignments, helping many people work efficiently in a more relaxed environment.
Recognizing the importance of version control tools and making good use of them is a key factor in increasing the overall success of your project, not just writing code. Whether you’re a software developer, designer, planner, or student, these tools can help you maximize your work efficiency.
