Chapter 2 of 6 · 4 practices · 3 min · 3-question quiz
Fast feedback and tests you can trust
A pipeline people trust is one that answers quickly and honestly. These practices keep builds fast and failures meaningful.
Start: Keep the main pipeline to a few minutes4 practices in this chapter
- 1Keep the main pipeline to a few minutesDORA's trunk-based guidance says the build and test process should run in a few minutes. When it takes much longer, people stop waiting for it, start new work in parallel and batch changes, and…
- 2Rely mostly on fast tests, and keep slow ones few and focusedNot every test belongs on every commit. Fast, isolated tests (units and small integrations with fakes) give quick, precise answers. End-to-end tests through a browser or across services catch wiring…
- 3Fix or quarantine flaky tests immediatelyA test that fails randomly teaches everyone to click "re-run" without reading the failure. After a few weeks, real failures get re-run too, and the suite stops protecting you.
- 4Run the required checks before merge, not afterDORA lists skipping tests before commit as a pitfall: trunk only stays stable if changes are tested before they land. Configure the repository so this cannot be skipped: Make the CI jobs required…
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