Combine version control (SVN) and issue management (JIRA) to improve traceability

Version control and bug tracking systems are found in almost every software development project. Both contain information on release content. In version control, it is usual (and a best practice) to supply an issue number when code is checked in. Also it allows identification of code which is in a release (by looking at release branches). Issue management allows providing metadata to issues such as the fix release and test status. This is usually what release management thinks is in a release.

In this article I will provide a simple example on how you can quickly add value to your software project by improving traceability. This is done by combining the information from version control (SVN) and issue management (JIRA) to generate release notes and enforcing some version control rules.

To allow this to work, certain rules need to be adhered to.

• code is committed using a commit message or tag which allows linking of code to issue or change
• it should be possible to identify the code which is part of a release from version control
• the bug tracking system should allow a selection of issues per release