Over-simplistically, I might have commits like: * Add new field to the database * Add new feature to API * Add new feature to front end * Add new feature en

Over-simplistically, I might have commits like: * Add new field to the database * Add new feature to API * Add new feature to front end * Add new feature end to end test Each would make sense on it's own from a code review point of view, but the full feature doesn't exist until they are all included. You don't want to merge them one by one because QA would have to test every step doesn't break something else, but wouldn't be able to test the feature itself until later. Splitting it up means code reviewers can consider each part without the clutter of the others, and git blame may be more helpful in the future (although maybe not in this over simplistic case).