Modern software development relies on speed. Waterfall’s monolithic all-or-nothing approach has been displaced primarily by rapid iterative practices that enable development and deployment – continuous integration (CI), continuous delivery (CD) and continuous deployment (CD).
While each practice has its own benefits, the common emphasis on continuous iteration has changed the essence of software development. Companies can deliver software to the market faster, testing new features more efficiently while reducing risk and cost.
This type of iteration relies on thorough planning and active pipelines that support multiple iterations at different stages of the development cycle, while keeping the entire development team involved. During the deployment of one structure, the next structure is tested, and the new structure in the cycle undergoes coding.
If you are in an IT related business, knowing how to use CI / CD piping is essential to keeping your company competitive. Here’s what you need to know about CI / CD methods and why they are important.
What is a CI / CD tube?
“CI / CD” represents the combined practices of Continuous Integration (CI) and Continuous Delivery (CD).
This is a software development approach that allows you to provide upgrades at any time and in a sustainable way. Development cycles are more frequent, impactful and faster when code changes are routine.
In CI, developers merge code changes into a central repository several times a day. The goal is to create an object that can be deployed. CD adds the practice of automating the entire software release process. Automated tests are used to ensure that the object for a given version of code is safe to deploy.
In Continuous Delivery, code changes are also deployed continuously, although the deployments are enabled manually. Most teams work in non-manufacturing environments, such as development and testing, and CD ensures that code changes are automatically pushed into those environments. If the whole process of transferring code from a source repository to a fully automated production, the process is called Continuous Deployment.
The benefits of CI / CD Pipeline
CI / CD is more than just task automation to avoid human error. This enables companies to provide innovative solutions to users as quickly and efficiently as possible.
- Better cooperation and quality. The rationale behind the CI / CD pipeline is that it is easier to find bugs with smaller code differences than larger ones that are generated over a long period of time. Furthermore, when developers work on shorter commit cycles, they are more likely to edit the same code at the same time.
- Improved stability and less bugs. The CI / CD pipeline allows code to be built simultaneously, reducing the risk of construction failure. Easier to isolate and eradicate bugs with smaller editions and automatic test cycles. Crews can also use feature flags without having to use code to easily disable specific functionality that is not ready or can cause an unexpected problem.
- Providing less risky software. Continuous integration and supply pipelines (CI / CD) facilitate release processes between projects. You limit the chances of creating bugs by checking for any change in the source code.
- Frequent release of new features. A CI / CD tube can visualize the entire path from a single-screen production commitment, allowing you to navigate between stages, detect inefficiencies, and improve workflow. By eliminating blockages for effectiveness, you are leading your product to success.
- A product that users need. Frequent updates mean more feedback from users. A / B testing features or testing early versions of products with real customers are two ways to take advantage of this. This way you can avoid wasting resources on features that your customers do not need, and instead focus on the ones they do need.
- Increased productivity. Developers who do not use CI / CD are often under pressure due to repeated bad deployments and difficult fixes. Because feature branches are too long to get a proper overview, code quality is compromised. CI / CD, on the other hand, helps product managers optimize for user impact. The code is deployed while fresh, leading to the development of better products.
- Reduced costs and easier maintenance. DevOps teams can maintain and update applications more easily. Automation eliminates the need for manual or unnecessary requests between developers and operations teams, as well as streamlines testing and reduces the number of errors that can occur in many of the recurring SDLC processes. The CI / CD pipeline helps companies save costs by updating small groups of code instead of larger software releases, allowing for more scalable and sustainable updates.
CI / CD stages
A CI / CD tube is a specification of the procedures that each software developer must perform to provide a new version of a product. Developers would still have to complete these steps manually if there was no automated pipeline, which was significantly less productive.
Most software editions go through several typical steps:
Failure at any stage usually elicits a message to the responsible developers. Otherwise, the entire team is notified after each successful deployment.
Source stage
Pipe activation is usually triggered by a source code repository.
When the code changes, the CI / CD tool receives a message and activates the appropriate pipe. Other frequent triggers include scheduled or automatically initiated workflows by the user, as well as results from other pipelines.
Construction phase
The source code is combined with its dependency to create a functional version of the product that could be delivered to users. Compilation is required for software written in languages like Java, C / C ++ or Go, while Ruby, Python and JavaScript do not require this step.
Original cloud software is usually deployed with Docker, hence this phase of the CI / CD tube creates Docker containers.
Failure to carry out the construction phase indicates a major problem in the project configuration, which must be addressed as soon as possible.
Test phase
At this point the team conducts automated tests to make sure the code is correct and the product is working as expected. The test phase serves as a safety net, preventing end users from being exposed to bugs.
The duty of developers to write tests. Writing new code in test-driven or behavior-oriented development is the best way to write automated tests.
This phase can last from seconds to hours, depending on the size of the project and its complexity. Many large-scale projects have many levels of testing, from smoke testing to end-to-end integration tests that evaluate the entire system from the user’s point of view. To reduce execution time, a large testing package is usually performed in parallel.
The test phase helps to reveal bugs that the developers were not aware of when writing the code. It is critical at this point to provide developers with feedback as soon as possible, while the problem is still fresh so it will be easier to fix it.
Paris phase
This is the last step of the process, during which the product is available to the public. The build is ready for deployment to a live server after completing all relevant test cases.
How CI / CD Pipelines help development teams
Imagine you have to coordinate teams whenever you need to run a test package or set up the infrastructure for the next environment. This will result in at least iterations and longer original and construction stages.
The CI / CD tube is the route for inserting the code into production. Software development is an iterative process, and developers can run automated CI / CD pipelines without the need for human interaction.
One of the main goals of DevOps teams is to foster the learning ability and usability of pipelines. Some environmentally driven pipes may allow developers to run all the way pre-production while requiring another pipe to reach production environments. This will require a lot of iteration until the development team is satisfied with the pipeline. Fully automated CI / CD tubes will go one step further and automate the process until production.
Summary
Most monolithic approaches to software development are no longer effective in the ever-changing requirements and user expectations. Businesses need to respond quickly to user feedback and adjust the development process accordingly. This is where fast iterative methods can manifest – continuous integration (CI), continuous delivery (CD) and continuous deployment (CD).
CI and CD provide greater agility by reducing the time periods of software development and delivery from months to weeks or even days. This allows companies to produce better software more efficiently and in a shorter time frame.
The SCAND DevOps team uses CI / CD principles to offer smooth systems development and update without downtime. If you need assistance in applying CI / CD principles in your development process, please feel free to contact us.