TL;DR: To avoid breaking the build when merging independent PRs to master, introduce a "demilitarized zone" branch, merge PRs to it and merge it to master automatically on successful builds.
I've been asked a few times over the last few months to put together a full write-up of the Git workflow we use at RichRelevance (and at Precog before), since I have referenced it in passing quite a few times in tweets and in person. The workflow is appreciably different from GitFlow and its derivatives, and thus it brings with it a different set of tradeoffs and optimizations. To that end, it would probably be helpful to go over exactly what workflow benefits I find to be beneficial or even necessary.
- Two developers working on independent features must never be blocked by each other
- No code freeze! Ever! For any reason!
- A developer must be able to base derivative work on another developer's work, without waiting for any third party
- Two developers working on inter-dependent features (