Forum Discussion
Fully on board with AlexKaras on this. File locking is almost a must with many of the files. Things like tcScript and such not so much. NameMapping, however... hoo-boy....
What I've found is that the merging isn't as bad with these files if you're simply adding or modifying data. But, with NameMapping especially, if you delete large chunks of data or move objects around so that there are large changes of "delete from here, add to there", THAT'S where things get ugly.
We've managed to work through this by having our engineers do small, incremental changes. Basically, as soon as you add a new item to NameMapping and Alias it, check it in to source and then re-get the latest to get all current updates. Lather, rinse, repeat. This works fine for adding a new child object, modifying a property value, etc. For larger more "invasive" changes, we establish a file lock to prevent changes until the person is done making those changes.
Absolutely in line with Robert.
P.S. Colin_McCrae: You are a lucky one... Really... But keep working hard, so that management never come to the idea to hire someone else to help you with tests automation. :D :)