A gated check-in is a bit different than a CI build. The gated check-in will trigger an automated build BEFORE checking-in the code. If it fails, the changeset is not cheked-in until the errors are fixed and checked-in again.
This option might seem perfect for the merge check-ins to the Main branch. I’ve found some issues trying to use it, for example:
- If multiple merges & check-ins from the same development are done and the first fails but the second doesn’t, you’ll still have pending merges to be done. You can try batching the builds, but I haven’t tried that.
- Issues with error notifications and pending code on dev VMs.
- If many check-ins are made, you’ll end up with lots of queued builds (and we only have one available agent per DevOps project). This can also be solved using the “Batch changes while a build is in progress”.
I think the CI option is working perfectly to validate code. As I’ve already said several times, choose the strategy that better suits your team and your needs. Experiment with CI and Gated check-in builds and decide what is better for you.
