What is continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD)? A DevOps essential explained
Software development is a demanding industry. Companies must keep pace with evolving technologies while meeting customers' constant demand for new features and functionality. Failing to do so risks losing clients to competitors that can better meet their expectations.
To address this, many software firms are adopting an agile framework of continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD). This approach enables developers to deploy updated code incrementally, frequently, and reliably, ensuring applications stay current while satisfying client demands for product growth.
Here’s how it works.
What is CI/CD?
CI/CD is a DevOps practice that merges continuous integration and continuous delivery into a unified development pipeline. The CI/CD pipeline automates many of the manual tasks involved in moving code from commit to production, including:
Building
Integration, regression, and unit testing
Deployment
Infrastructure provisioning
With a CI/CD framework in place, code updates are automatically tested, delivered, and deployed, reducing time to market. A well-configured CI/CD process also minimizes downtime and increases the frequency of new code deployments.
What is continuous integration (CI)?
The continuous integration (CI) phase of the pipeline regularly integrates updates into the main branch of an application's shared source code repository throughout the development process. Each code block is automatically tested upon commitment or merging, triggering the build phase of the lifecycle.
CI tools detect bugs or security issues early, enabling the DevOps team to address them more quickly than with traditional frameworks. Validation starts with static code analysis to ensure quality. Once QA is complete, automated routines package and compile the code for further testing. CI tools also maintain version control, logging code updates in the repository so developers can easily track the active release.
What is continuous delivery (CD)?
Continuous delivery (CD) works alongside continuous integration, handling the deployment of updates.
Once the build is complete and has passed testing, CD systems provision the server or cloud infrastructure and package the code for deployment to various environments, including:
Development
Testing
Staging
Production
The CD phase ensures that developers can deploy software to the live production server at any time, either through a manual launch or by automating the process for continuous deployment.
What’s the difference between CI and CD?
The key difference between continuous integration and continuous delivery lies in what happens to the code. In the integration phase, developers write and update code, while delivery involves preparing the update for deployment to the testing or production environment after the build. Together, the CI/CD pipeline ensures a consistent process for building, testing, and packaging software improvements, enabling regular, reliable releases.
CI/CD’s full form also includes an additional step – continuous deployment. After automated testing is complete, this phase transfers updates to the production server, making them available to users. For many companies, continuous deployment is the ultimate goal of adopting DevOps practices.
The fundamental difference between continuous integration and delivery lies in what happens to the code. During the integration phase, developers write new or updated software code. Delivery involves a set of practices that occur after the build to prepare the update for upload to either the testing or production environment. Put together, the CI/CD pipeline creates a consistent process that allows developers to build, test, and package reliable software improvements and release them on a routine basis.
Why is CI/CD important?
As software applications grow larger and more complex, developers are seeking ways to streamline coding and testing workflows to meet growing demands. CI/CD automates many of the time-consuming tasks between code commitment and production, reducing developer downtime and enabling more frequent releases.
This faster integration and release cycle generates continuous feedback from users, which developers can quickly incorporate into the next round of updates. The result is improved user experiences, higher customer satisfaction, and strengthened brand loyalty.
The benefits of CI/CD implementation
Software companies and development teams implementing CI/CD see improvements beyond faster updates. Here are some additional advantages:
1. Improved customer relationships
CI/CD automation reduces bugs and security issues in production, resulting in a smoother user experience. This leads to higher customer satisfaction, greater confidence in the product, and a stronger reputation for the organization.
2. Increased time-to-value
The ability to launch updates at any time allows for faster and more frequent deployments, shortening delivery timelines for new products and features. Faster time-to-market lowers development costs and frees the team to focus on innovation. From the customer’s perspective, this framework quickly delivers in-demand features, giving the company a competitive advantage.
3. Fewer bugs
With smaller code blocks tested multiple times before release, developers can catch issues earlier when they’re easier to fix. This smoother development cycle results in updates that perform predictably, reducing stress for the team.
4. Better time management
CI/CD tools eliminate much of the uncertainty in the development process, making it easier for teams to meet deadlines. Breaking updates into smaller, manageable pieces simplifies tracking and ensures on-time delivery.
5. Frees resources
Studies show that developers spend 32% of their time writing or improving code, while 35% goes to testing, maintenance, and security tasks. Automating parts of the testing process frees up the team to focus on innovations that drive future success.
6. Improved focus
CI/CD simplifies debugging by allowing developers to work in smaller batches, making it easier to concentrate and spot bugs. Automated testing also provides real-time feedback, keeping the work fresh in developers’ minds.
7. Reduced cognitive load
Test automation minimizes frustration and stress during deployments, improving employee engagement and reducing the risk of burnout.
8. Faster recovery
If a bug makes it into production, smaller code batches make it easier to identify and fix issues quickly, reducing the mean time to resolution (MTTR). Teams can also roll back updates to the previous version to prevent negative customer impact.
Enhancing CI/CD pipelines with Tempo
Implementing a CI/CD pipeline requires clear visibility into DevOps workflows and performance. Tempo’s Capacity Planner integrates seamlessly with Jira, providing the tools needed to optimize project prioritization and planning. It also delivers real-time data on productivity roadblocks, enabling development teams to streamline processes and accelerate software releases.
By integrating Capacity Planner with Tempo Timesheets, you can track time spent on CI/CD processes and performance, enhancing team capacity management and collaboration. Timesheets also offers templates and configurable reports, simplifying report generation. Additionally, it integrates with Azure DevOps Server, making it a valuable addition to your DevOps tech stack.
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