Key Stages of Effective Continuous Integration

Continuous integration and delivery pipelines have become essential for modern software development for several reasons. 

Continuous integration and delivery pipelines allow developers to quickly integrate and deliver changes to the code base, resulting in a faster time to market for new features and updates. Automating the process of building, testing, and deploying code, continuous integration, and delivery pipelines can also help developers save time and improve efficiency in the software development process.

Continuous integration and delivery pipelines allow developers to quickly respond to changes in requirements or market conditions, enabling teams to deliver updates and new features more rapidly while ensuring that code changes are regularly integrated and tested, reducing the chances of introducing bugs or breaking functionality. 

Other benefits of continuous integration include enhanced collaboration. Continuous integration and delivery pipelines encourage collaboration among developers, as changes can be easily integrated and tested by multiple team members, leading to better communication and coordination within the development team.

Continuous integration and delivery pipelines also provide developers with immediate feedback on the quality of their code changes, helping teams to identify and address issues early in the development process.

Key Stages of Effective Continuous Integration

Due to the narrow focus of viewing the pipelines as a highway to deliver features and new versions of software, there exists a common set of pitfalls. One of the most common is having security implemented as an afterthought. Another is focusing too much on the CICD process and not the people and their expertise. With a focus on DevSecOps, teams can be empowered to make the right decisions and solve the right problems. 

An established continuous delivery (CD) pipeline takes new code from a repository through an automated continuous integration (CI) build process. Once the build is completed, it is subjected to automated testing, might be deployed to an environment designed for additional testing, and then deployed to production with a single click. Any hiccups at one of the multiple steps in the process can lead to delays in delivery.

Generally, CI consists of five stages to create customer-ready products, updates, and/or new features. The first stages include:

• Build/develop stages, which include either pulling source code from a repository or writing new code, creating the links between the code being developed and the modules, dependencies, and libraries. 
• The build step also includes Commit, which runs relevant commit tests, analyzes the code to verify soundness, and prepares artifacts needed for later stages, such as test databases.
• The test stage is both its own module and upstream testing that it hasn’t broken existing features.

For the last stages of effective Continuous Integration, please read our latest ebook on The Secret to Boosting DevSecOps and Developer Productivity.