Ensuring that branches are useful and not "cluttering" requires a bit of discipline. It's easy to get a bit branch-happy in which case you end up with changes s

Ensuring that branches are useful and not "cluttering" requires a bit of discipline. It's easy to get a bit branch-happy in which case you end up with changes scattered across a number of branches that may or may not have a consistent starting point. This will cause issues when you have to merge all the updates for a release. A general rule of thumb is only to create a branch when you need to work in parallel: code needs to be separated to allow for simultaneous updates or if a feature needs to be isolated until it's release timetable is set. This will vary depending on team size, work patterns and the nature of code changes.