The section "Introducing Continuous Integration" looks like this:
So you fancy trying out Continuous Integration - where do you start? The full set of practices I outlined above give you the full benefits - but you don't need to start with all of them.
There's no fixed recipe here - much depends on the nature of your setup and team. But here are a few things that we've learned to get things going.
One of the first steps is to get the build automated. Get everything you need into source control get it so that you can build the whole system with a single command. For many projects this is not a minor undertaking - yet it's essential for any of the other things to work. Initially you may only do build occasionally on demand, or just do an automated nightly build. While these aren't continuous integration an automated nightly build is a fine step on the way.
Introduce some automated testing into you build. Try to identify the major areas where things go wrong and get automated tests to expose those failures. Particularly on an existing project it's hard to get a really good suite of tests going rapidly - it takes time to build tests up. You have to start somewhere though - all those cliches about Rome's build schedule apply.
Try to speed up the commit build. Continuous Integration on a build of a few hours is better than nothing, but getting down to that magic ten minute number is much better. This usually requires some pretty serious surgery on your code base to do as you break dependencies on slow parts of the system.
If you are starting a new project, begin with Continuous Integration from the beginning. Keep an eye on build times and take action as soon as you start going slower than the ten minute rule. By acting quickly you'll make the necessary restructurings before the code base gets so big that it becomes a major pain.
Above all get some help. Find someone who has done Continuous Integration before to help you. Like any new technique it's hard to introduce it when you don't know what the final result looks like. It may cost money to get a mentor, but you'll also pay in lost time and productivity if you don't do it. (Disclaimer / Advert - yes we at ThoughtWorks do do some consultancy in this area. After all we've made most of the mistakes that there are to make.)