DZone
Thanks for visiting DZone today,
Edit Profile
  • Manage Email Subscriptions
  • How to Post to DZone
  • Article Submission Guidelines
Sign Out View Profile
  • Post an Article
  • Manage My Drafts
Over 2 million developers have joined DZone.
Log In / Join
Refcards Trend Reports Events Over 2 million developers have joined DZone. Join Today! Thanks for visiting DZone today,
Edit Profile Manage Email Subscriptions Moderation Admin Console How to Post to DZone Article Submission Guidelines
View Profile
Sign Out
Refcards
Trend Reports
Events
Zones
Culture and Methodologies Agile Career Development Methodologies Team Management
Data Engineering AI/ML Big Data Data Databases IoT
Software Design and Architecture Cloud Architecture Containers Integration Microservices Performance Security
Coding Frameworks Java JavaScript Languages Tools
Testing, Deployment, and Maintenance Deployment DevOps and CI/CD Maintenance Monitoring and Observability Testing, Tools, and Frameworks
Partner Zones AWS Cloud
by AWS Developer Relations
Culture and Methodologies
Agile Career Development Methodologies Team Management
Data Engineering
AI/ML Big Data Data Databases IoT
Software Design and Architecture
Cloud Architecture Containers Integration Microservices Performance Security
Coding
Frameworks Java JavaScript Languages Tools
Testing, Deployment, and Maintenance
Deployment DevOps and CI/CD Maintenance Monitoring and Observability Testing, Tools, and Frameworks
Partner Zones
AWS Cloud
by AWS Developer Relations
  1. DZone
  2. Testing, Deployment, and Maintenance
  3. Deployment
  4. Git or SVN (Centralized or De-Centralized Version Control)

Git or SVN (Centralized or De-Centralized Version Control)

The core distinguishing factor between the two version control giants, Git and SVN, and what difference centralization makes.

Jalal Kiswani, PhD user avatar by
Jalal Kiswani, PhD
·
Jul. 02, 16 · Opinion
Like (9)
Save
Tweet
Share
8.62K Views

Join the DZone community and get the full member experience.

Join For Free

In this article, we'll talk about version control classifications and their usage recommendations based on the different factors and constraints of software projects.

Software Version Control (SVC) is the term for the practices, tools, and software packages used to manage software project assets  (e.g. source code).

There are two classifications for VC packages: centralized (CVC) and de-centralized (DCVC). Choosing one over the other depends on many factors, including :

  1. Project scale

  2. Team geographical locations

  3. Team expertise 

  4. Agility.  

The current most popular available open-source options for CVC is Subversion, and the most popular for DCVC is Git.

When to Use Centralized Version Control?

In small-scale projects with relatively close geographical areas and low-level of expertise, CVC is the preferred method since it is easier to manage, and it will reduce the chance of conflicts.

However, it requires centralized seniority expertise to ensure stability through a continuous code review process. In this case, the software development policy should ensure that only low-level and short-term tasks are assigned to developers (hours up to one day) by experienced architects or software designers.

When to Use De-Centralized Version Control?

On the other hand, DCVC depends on a situation where developers have more maturity and expertise to handle more higher-level long-term tasks. Also, they should have the ability to make architectural and design decisions. Project leadership should force standardization of coding and naming conventions, design, and architecture decisions to ensure consistency across the different project components, which may increase the cost of development in case there is a failure to do so.

Update: July 6,2016

Below are some questions that may clarify my perspective about CVC and DCVC.

  1. Are junior developers usually assigned long-term or short term tasks?

  2. Is Git designed for short or long-term commits on server?

  3. Which one is easier to learn (conceptual and practical) for junior-developers?

  4. In distributed and remote geographical areas, with different working timezones, how the developers can back up and track their work in case of version control server or network failure?

  5. When the developers have larger privileges to design and implement their own tasks and components (such as micro-services), what is more practical and easier for them during the development, to commit locally or to commit on server using branching? Who normally get this privileges , junior  or senior developers?

  6. In projects with relatively high number of developers working on the same components (more than 3 developers), how it will easy to resolve the conflicts if Git is used and the tasks are relativly long term (2-10 days)?

  7. What is the percentage of junior developers and immature developers who able to commit to architectural design, and coding convention standards with minimal supervision?

  8. How to ensure architecture, design and convention consistency across projects for long-term and distributed tasks if Git is used?

Jalal Kiswani
http://www.jalalkiswani.com/


Version control Git Software development

Opinions expressed by DZone contributors are their own.

Popular on DZone

  • Unlocking the Power of Elasticsearch: A Comprehensive Guide to Complex Search Use Cases
  • Multi-Cloud Integration
  • The 5 Books You Absolutely Must Read as an Engineering Manager
  • Create a REST API in C# Using ChatGPT

Comments

Partner Resources

X

ABOUT US

  • About DZone
  • Send feedback
  • Careers
  • Sitemap

ADVERTISE

  • Advertise with DZone

CONTRIBUTE ON DZONE

  • Article Submission Guidelines
  • Become a Contributor
  • Visit the Writers' Zone

LEGAL

  • Terms of Service
  • Privacy Policy

CONTACT US

  • 600 Park Offices Drive
  • Suite 300
  • Durham, NC 27709
  • support@dzone.com
  • +1 (919) 678-0300

Let's be friends: