Branching is a very important concept in version control systems like git which facilitates team collaboration. Some of the most commonly used branching types are:
Feature branching
* This branching type ensures that a particular feature of a project is maintained in a branch.
* Once the feature is fully validated, the branch is then merged into the main branch.
Task branching
* Here, each task is maintained in its own branch with the task key being the branch name.
* Naming the branch name as a task name makes it easy to identify what task is getting covered in what branch.
Release branching
* This type of branching is done once a set of features meant for a release are completed, they can be cloned into a branch called the release branch. Any further features will not be added to this branch.
* Only bug fixes, documentation, and release-related activities are done in a release branch.
* Once the things are ready, the releases get merged into the main branch and are tagged with the release version number.
* These changes also need to be pushed into the develop branch which would have progressed with new feature development.
The branching strategies followed would vary from company to company based on their requirements and strategies.
