What Are the Best Practices for Branch Management in Large Projects Using Bitbucket?

[ANDILE LUTHULI]

Hello everyone,

As this is my first post here, I’d like to ask for some expert advice on branch management within Bitbucket, specifically for large-scale projects involving multiple developers. We are currently facing challenges when it comes to handling multiple feature branches simultaneously, and it often leads to merge conflicts.

Here is an example of our current workflow:

# Create a new feature branch
git checkout -b feature/new-feature
# Work on the feature and commit changes
git add .
git commit -m "Implemented new feature"

# Merge the feature branch into develop
git checkout develop
git merge feature/new-feature
# Resolve conflicts (if any)

Our issue arises when different team members are working on separate feature branches that modify the same files. This often results in conflicts during the merge process. We've considered strategies like feature flags or regularly rebasing feature branches with develop, but we are unsure which approach would be most effective for minimizing conflicts and ensuring smoother integration.

Could anyone share their best practices or suggest specific strategies for managing branches in Bitbucket, particularly for larger teams? Any guidance on how to handle frequent merges, conflict resolution, or recommended workflows would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you in advance for your insights!

[Aron Gombas _Midori_]

I think this problem is not specific to Bitbucket, it is specific to Git and the workflows you use.

I am afraid if there are teams modifying the same files in parallel, the chance for conflicts is always high.

A few things that you could eventually do:

• Consideri breaking the code to smaller "pieces". Avoid using big "monolithic" stuff. (Write classes with smaller responsibilities, use smaller config files, etc.)
• Maybe organize the work in a sequence so that parallel teams work on very different parts of the code.
• Rebase to "develop" as frequently as possible. Long delays increase the possibility of difficult merges.