Conversations on the topic of branching, especially to branch or not to branch, tend to be heated and opinionated. In order to level the playing field we start off by defining the ballpark to play in:

• Firstly we define what we mean by branching
• Secondly we define which contexts to base the discussion from (Co-located teams? Distributed teams? Open Source?)
• Thirdly we agree on the definition of Continuous Integration
• Fourthly we talk about the technology value stream. 

Then we are ready to have a meaningful discussion of how branching impacts the flow of work inside the technology value stream, what Trunk Based Development REALLY is and why companies like Google and Facebook don't do branching. In the end you will have enough information to make a well founded decision about branching in your company.