Continuous integration describes the practice of multiple developers integrating code into the main repository multiple times. Every commit a developer adds starts a build that consists of several tests and produces artifacts when it is finished.

Countless open source repositories use continuous integration and have a build and release process to release to the PowerShell gallery for example. Especially in the open-source community, where projects have many different contributors, a good CI process is essential.

The PowerShell repositories set a good example. Developers fork the official code and work on their small features, which later need to be integrated into the repository. This is accomplished through pull requests:

Every pull request triggers an automated build process on a CI system like AppVeyor or VSTS that runs a suite of tests. So, before the...