Storyboard References and Communication Save the Day

Avoid Merge Conflicts — Storyboard Edition

You can use storyboards and still avoid merge conflicts

Looks like at least one of those vehicles doesn’t belong, but which one(s)?

I recently worked on a 1-week quick prototype project with a few junior developers. Most of the developers on the team preferred that we use storyboards because it’s what they’re most familiar with.

Though I’m one that prefers working in storyboards, I was not looking forward to the incessant merge conflicts. Meeting after meeting of “which side do I pick?” — storyboards are written in XML if you didn’t know (right-click a storyboard file -> Open As -> Source Code if you want to see for yourself). This makes it difficult for some developers who aren’t familiar with XML to decipher what’s what.

The Good News Is… At The End Of The Week, We Had… One Merge Conflict. Just one. Here’s how we did it…

One thing you’ll notice throughout this story is you’re going to hear a lot of “we” as opposed to “I”. That’s because teamwork is paramount to avoiding merge conflicts, and we truly worked as a unit. That’s not to say someone wasn’t the lead — a team needs a leader, after all, someone to provide direction.