CICD Pipeline: Definition and Its Benefits
Posted by Hermes Campion on February 24th, 2021
A CICD pipeline is a deployment pipeline integrated with automation tools and improved workflow. It will minimize manual errors and enhance the feedback loops throughout the SDLC, allowing teams to deliver smaller chunks of releases within a shorter time. The components and tools required to build a pipeline depend on the team's particular needs and existing workflow.
Benefits of Employing a CICD Pipeline
Improves Quality at Speed
For many teams, product quality and deployment speed first come to mind when applying a new workflow. The old way of deploying updates stretches the time spent on identifying and reporting underlying issues. The more manual the feedback loop is, the longer it takes for the engineering team to find and fix bugs. A well-functioning CI/CD process is a productive solution for speeding up the deployment pace and makes each release more valuable to the end-users. It streamlines the deployment cycle by enabling constant communication between teams and utilizing automated processes.
Automate monotonous tasks and help developers stay focused
First, business resources are used in other critical areas rather than invested in the repetitive, redundant testing tasks. When the process is automated and streamlined in a pipeline, it effectively reduces the complexity and production costs for repetitive tests.
The CI/CD pipeline allows developers to stay focused on what they do best - writing code. Without it, developers have to handle all types of tasks from environment setup, build making to issue investigation, as well as product delivery, which is time-consuming and distracting from their primary focus.
Reduce regression testing effort and adds business values for organizations
The Quality Assurance (QA) team's task is very fragile to change. One small change can lead to many regression efforts. Therefore, having access to all versions of the system is crucial to QA and other stakeholders. Moreover, keeping the latest version updated will help in improving the quality and reliability of QA feedback on bugs logged.
Integrating CICD pipeline into your production line will establish a continuous and automated cycle in which deliveries are completed faster with more values. All team members can stay on track of their projects and provide feedback in real-time thus, any bugs or issues can be quickly identified and resolved. Over time, your product will be refined thanks to the team's constant review, resulting in a more satisfying user experience.
Improved time-to-market and code quality
Deployment timing is one of the key elements that decide the success of your product release. Deployment at regular intervals helps increase engagement with customers, gain profit, support pricing, and boost market goals for your business. With the right time-to-market, the product's ROI will increase significantly.
The CICD pipeline provides a workflow that allows developers to integrate their codes more frequently and share them with team members for avoiding possible conflicts in the future. This will help in reducing the cost of fixing defects and eventually improve the code quality for all updates. Hiring talented developers is hard; that's why having a well-established CI/CD process will help you attract talents more efficiently.
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