Effective Workflow Management in Git Branching

🧩 Branch Roles & Responsibilities

1. DEV Branch

• Purpose: Active development, feature integration, and bug fixes.
• Best Practices:
  • Developers work in feature branches off DEV.
  • Use pull requests with code reviews before merging.
  • Keep DEV stable enough for integration testing.
  • Rebase or merge MAIN into DEV regularly to stay up-to-date.

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2. QA Branch

• Purpose: Integration testing and bug fixing in a controlled environment.
• Best Practices:
  • QA is updated from DEV when a sprint or feature set is ready.
  • Bug fixes found in QA should be made in hotfix branches, then merged into both QA and DEV.
  • Avoid direct commits to QA unless absolutely necessary.
  • Tag builds for traceability.

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3. UAT Branch

• Purpose: Final validation by business stakeholders.
• Best Practices:
  • UAT is updated from QA after successful QA testing.
  • Only critical fixes should be allowed here, ideally via hotfix branches.
  • Keep UAT clean and stable for business sign-off.

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4. MAIN (or PROD) Branch

• Purpose: Production-ready code.
• Best Practices:
  • Only merge into MAIN from UAT after approval.
  • Use release tags and maintain a changelog.
  • Protect MAIN with branch policies (e.g., no direct commits, required reviews).
  • Consider using release branches if multiple versions are supported.

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✅ Additional Tips

• Automation: Use CI/CD pipelines to automate testing and deployments between branches.
• Branch Naming: Use consistent naming like feature/login, hotfix/qa-bug-123, release/v1.2.0.
• Documentation: Maintain a branching policy document for your team.
• Communication: Ensure everyone understands the flow and responsibilities.