new: Documentation for Branching and Code Reviews,

branching-code-review-process.md

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+# Branching and Code Review Process
+
+This document outlines the guidelines and expectations for effective code branching, review, and merging within a regulated Azure DevOps environment. Emphasis is placed on the four-eyes principle and traceability of changes.
+
+![Branching and Code Review Process.](resources/diagrams/branching-code-review-process.png "Branching and Code Review Process.")
+
+## Traceability
+
+- Utilize Azure Boards for work item tracking, linking commits and PRs to their respective items.
+- Enforce policies in Azure Repos to require reviews, approvals, optionally linked work items for merges.
+- Use annotations in your code for significant changes, providing explanations and linking back to documentation or specs.
+
+## Create a Branch
+
+- Create branches under subfolders aligned with their purpose (`new`, `update`, `fix`, `delete`) following the semantic versioning linked with release notes documentation.
+- Use descriptive branch names that reflect the feature or fix.
+
+## Apply Changes
+
+- Commit changes regularly with clear, concise messages that follow semantic versioning.
+- Include work item or issue numbers in commit messages for traceability.
+
+## Manual Testing
+
+- Perform local linting to ensure code quality.
+- Preview changes locally, especially for UI-related updates.
+- Run unit tests and ensure they pass before pushing code.
+
+## Create a Pull Request
+
+- Rebase your branch on the latest main branch to simplify the review process and prevent conflicts.
+- Ensure your PR description is detailed, linking back to any related work items or issues for context.
+- Tag relevant team members for review and set a deadline if necessary.
+
+## Automated Testing
+
+- Optional part, automated tests can be defined within a pipeline that is triggered automnatcally when a Pull Request is created.
+- Ensure all automated tests pass, including unit, integration, and end-to-end tests.
+- Check for code coverage and ensure it meets the project's standards.
+
+## Review a Pull Request
+
+- Focus on maintainability, readability, and scalability of the code.
+- Ensure new code adheres to project standards and integrates well with existing codebase.
+- Provide constructive feedback, highlighting both strengths and areas for improvement.
+
+## Merge a Pull Request
+
+- Ensure all PR checks pass (build, test pipelines, and any additional checks your team requires).
+- Only merge after at least one other team member has approved the changes.
+- Upon merging, the main branch triggers a CI/CD pipeline to deploy changes to a staging environment for further testing.
+
+## Post-Merge
+
+- Delete the feature branch to keep the repository clean and manageable.
+- Update any project tracking tools to reflect the completion of tasks.
+- Review deployment results and ensure no issues in the staging environment before promoting to production.