Is continuous integration mandatory related to agile methodologies?
My question is: Is it possible to integrate in order to enable continuous delivery even though there is no agile methodology in the team? Obviously it would make it easier (and a lot) but the methodologies might be "not necessary"?
That's an interesting question.
CI (Continuous Integration) defines some rules to really be considered as a developmental CI environment. However, it does not intrinsically define the use of an agile methodology.
But if you look closely at its essence, it is the continuous delivery of software, that way you have to always deliver code to your CI server to do the whole process, from compiling the code to running your automated tests. That way we can see that it is a totally incremental process, where we are always evolving and delivering a little more of the software.
So we can see that this process is very similar to the XP methodology (eXtreme Programming), an incremental delivery that has several releases to verify all the project premises.
If you really want to follow an IC environment you will inevitably have to follow this incremental idea, not counting, testing, software quality, etc. Things that I consider to be primordial, regardless of the methodology adopted in software development.
Implementing CI in a project is not simply putting a server to do it, it's a paradigm shift for the entire team that has to deliver software. Following your rules will make your team more productive and prone to deliver value and prevent failures.
