What are the best practices for using GitHub to improve virtual team software development?

1 Choose a workflow

One of the first steps to use GitHub successfully is to choose a workflow that suits your team's needs and preferences. A workflow is a set of rules and conventions that define how you use branches, commits, pull requests, and merges to manage your code changes. There are different types of workflows, such as feature branch, Gitflow, or Forking, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. You should choose a workflow that matches your project's complexity, size, and frequency of releases, and that everyone in your team understands and follows.

2 Write clear and consistent commit messages

Another best practice for using GitHub is to write clear and consistent commit messages that describe what you have changed and why. Commit messages are important for documenting your code history, tracking your progress, and communicating with your team members. You should follow some general guidelines for writing commit messages, such as using the imperative mood, keeping them short and concise, and using a standard format. For example, you can use a format like this: [type]: [subject] , where type is the category of the change (e.g., feat, fix, refactor, etc.), and subject is a brief summary of the change.

3 Use pull requests and code reviews

Pull requests are a way of requesting feedback and approval for your code changes before merging them into the main branch. Code reviews are the process of examining and commenting on the code changes in a pull request. Using pull requests and code reviews can help you improve your code quality, catch bugs and errors, enforce coding standards, and share knowledge and best practices. You should use pull requests and code reviews for every significant change you make, and follow some tips to make them effective, such as providing enough context and description, requesting specific reviewers, addressing comments and suggestions, and keeping them small and focused.

4 Manage issues and milestones

Issues are a way of tracking tasks, bugs, features, and enhancements related to your project. Milestones are a way of grouping and organizing issues by a specific goal or deadline. Managing issues and milestones can help you plan and prioritize your work, monitor your progress, and collaborate with your team members. You should use issues and milestones to define your project's scope, requirements, and deliverables, and to assign responsibilities and deadlines. You should also use labels, comments, and notifications to categorize, update, and communicate about your issues and milestones.

5 Document and test your code

Documentation and testing are essential for ensuring your code's functionality, usability, and maintainability. Documentation is a way of explaining your code's purpose, structure, and behavior to yourself and others. Testing is a way of verifying your code's correctness, performance, and reliability. Documenting and testing your code can help you avoid confusion, errors, and technical debt, and make your code easier to read, modify, and reuse. You should document and test your code throughout your development process, and use tools and frameworks that integrate with GitHub, such as Javadoc, Doxygen, JUnit, PyTest, etc.

6 Communicate and collaborate with your team

Finally, the most important best practice for using GitHub is to communicate and collaborate with your team effectively. GitHub provides various features and tools that facilitate communication and collaboration, such as discussions, wikis, projects, actions, and integrations. You should use these features and tools to share information, ideas, and feedback, to coordinate your work, and to automate your tasks. You should also establish some norms and expectations for your team's communication and collaboration, such as how often, when, and where you communicate, what channels and tools you use, and what tone and style you adopt.