
I must confess, I have a fondness for the "quick fix."

In a prior post, I noticed some pushback against the "quick fix," which is often viewed as a nuisance in ABAP development. In my previous writings, I've looked into numerous strategies for enhancing developer productivity, and today, I'm keen to reassess the "quick fix" from a fresh perspective.

# Striving for productivity

Without going into great detail here, there are several best practice metrics that you should monitor to [measure productivity](/blog/accelerate-developer-productivity):

1. Delivery lead time: This is the duration from writing the first line of code to deployment in production.
2. Deployment frequency: This refers to the count of production deployments.
3. Time to restore service: This is the time it takes to fix a problem in production.
4. Change fail rate: This is the percentage of deployments that result in production issues.

A quick fix can function both as a feature (item 1) and as a bug (item 3). It's essential for organizations to roll out features or rectify bugs promptly (item 2), but not at the cost of creating additional production issues (item 4). 

So, how can we use ABAP Unit to reshape the perception of quick fixes?

# CI pipelines as the safeguard

As an SAP developer with over a decade of experience, I understand that developers often want to expedite work but might not always test as thoroughly as required. This is where CI pipelines come in - acting as inherent safeguards, they help minimize the risks associated with quick fixes.

So, how do these pipelines work?

1. Developers make changes in a Nuve personal development environment and push these changes to GitHub using abapGit.
2. Once they feel the change is ready for merging, they create a pull request (PR).
3. The CI Pipeline springs into action:
- The code is automatically scrutinized for naming conventions and undergoes static analysis based on 100+ rules.
- A temporary SAP system is spun up, the PR branch is pulled, and the [ABAP unit](/blog/fundamentals-of-abap-unit-testing) and [integration tests](/blog/abap-unit-testing-approaches) run. Once completed, the temporary SAP system is deleted.
- Assuming all tests pass, another developer reviews the code. 

If all tests succeed, the code is prepped for production. If any fail, it goes back to step 1.

# Embracing modern development

This process might be novel to some ABAP developers, but it has been available outside of SAP for over a decade. The automated part of the [CI pipeline](/solutions/devops-for-sap) only takes about 5 minutes, greatly enhancing productivity objectives.

> ### Ready to level up your unit testing with CI pipelines? 
> With Nuve Platform, implement quick fixes like never before. Check out our plans and [start your journey today](/pricing).

# The quick fix isn't going anywhere

Despite some contrary views, I remain a fan of the quick fix. Yet, I strongly believe in its integration within a CI pipeline framework, employing technology to work quickly in a personal development environment, ensuring near-bug-free code via automated testing, and utilizing peer reviews for quality control and knowledge sharing. 

Equipped with these tools, developers can confidently enjoy quick fixes all day, every day.


The dreaded "quick fix" can be an opportunity

Explore how CI pipelines transform the quick fix approach in ABAP development. A quick fix isn't a problem, it's an opportunity when handled right!

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