Effective collaboration in software development hinges on consistent Git best practices. Utilizing established branching models, such as Git Flow or GitHub Flow, prevents conflicts and ensures a clean release history. Key practices include: committing small, logical changes frequently; writing descriptive commit messages that explain why changes were made; keeping feature branches short-lived; and always running tests before merging. Utilizing pull requests (PRs) for code review is essential, forcing collaboration and maintaining code quality across the team’s codebase.