Continuous delivery is a software development practice where code changes are automatically built, tested, and prepared for a release to production. The goal of continuous delivery is to make the software development process faster, more reliable, and more efficient. In this article, we’ll give you a crash course on what continuous delivery is and why it’s important for modern software development.
What is Continuous Delivery?
Continuous delivery is a software development methodology that aims to automate the process of delivering software from development to production. This process includes everything from writing code, to building and testing it, to deploying it to users. The goal of continuous delivery is to make the software development process faster, more reliable, and more efficient.
The continuous development pipeline is the key to achieving continuous delivery. This pipeline is a series of automated processes that take code changes from development to production. The pipeline includes steps such as:
- Code Commit: The first step in the pipeline is when developers commit code changes to a source code repository.
- Build and Test: The next step is to build the code and run automated tests to ensure that it works as expected.
- Deployment: If the code passes the build and test phase, it is then deployed to production.
Continuous delivery is important for several reasons:
- Faster releases: With continuous delivery, code changes can be deployed to production faster and more frequently. This means that new features and bug fixes can be delivered to users more quickly.
- Improved reliability: Continuous delivery helps to ensure that code changes are tested and validated before they are deployed to production. This helps to reduce the risk of bugs and errors in the software.
- Increased efficiency: By automating the software development process, continuous delivery can help teams to be more efficient and productive. This can lead to better collaboration, faster development, and improved quality.
How to Implement Continuous Delivery
Implementing continuous delivery can be a complex process, but it starts with having the right tools and processes in place. Some key components of a continuous delivery pipeline include:
- Source Code Management: A source code repository is the foundation of a continuous delivery pipeline. This is where code changes are committed and managed.
- Continuous Integration: Continuous integration is the process of building and testing code changes automatically whenever they are committed to the source code repository.
- Automated Deployment: The final step in the pipeline is to deploy code changes to production automatically. This can be done using tools such as Ansible, Puppet, or Chef.
Conclusion
Continuous delivery is a powerful software development practice that can help teams to deliver software faster, more reliably, and more efficiently. By automating the process of delivering code changes from development to production, teams can focus on developing high-quality software and delivering new features and bug fixes to users quickly. If you’re looking to improve your software development process, consider implementing continuous delivery today. You can use Orangebeard to speed up the testing part and keep the overview of the project.
