I guess it's a combination: a) Granular commits are an essential basis of good version control. Big, bloated commits (maybe even combining code from multiple, different topics) will sooner or later bite you. b) Integrating often. I think you can be successful with long-lived branches, but you need to have more discipline and not forget to re-integrate from time to time. Integrating late will naturally raise the risk of conflicts - because, simply, more changes accumulate.