[jjanyan]

Concurrent development with maximum flexibility:

It might be a bit hard to follow, but this is the branching strategy we follow. http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=15wi351&s=7

We use jira for managing our code changes and requests. Each ticket has its own branch. Everyday we merge the tickets we want to go out into a release branch, as you can see in the image. Release, then merge into master once we are satisfied with the release.

The benefits of this strategy is having maximum flexibility in releasing any code change. A request can be made, completed, and released in the same day, often in combination with changes that have been in progress for weeks.

The draw back is managing which branches are going out when, more so with teams greater than 20. It takes knowledgeable team leads and release managers.