Table of Contents

CI/CD Pipeline Workflow

A CI/CD pipeline is a set of practices and tools that automate the process of software development and deployment. CI/CD stands for Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (or Continuous Delivery).

Continuous Integration (CI)

Continuous Integration automates the process of integrating code changes from multiple contributors into a shared repository frequently. CI automatically compiles and builds the application to ensure that the codebase is always in a deployable state.
CI runs unit tests, integration tests, and other automated tests to ensure new code doesn’t break existing functionality. CI uses tools for static code analysis and linting to enforce coding standards and detect potential issues.

Continuous Deployment (CD)

Continuous Deployment automates the deployment of code changes to production or staging environments after they pass the CI processes. CD pushes code changes to production automatically or with minimal manual intervention. CD implements mechanisms to revert to previous versions in case of issues. It also involves monitoring continuously the application in production to detect issues and gather feedback for improvements.

Workflow

The general CI/CD workflow is as follows:

Code Commits: Software developers commit code changes to a version control system.
For example: Git
Build: The CI server automatically builds the application to ensure that the code compiles and integrates well.
Test: Automated tests run to verify the correctness of the code.
Package: The application is packaged into deployable artifacts (e.g., JAR, WAR, Docker images, etc).
Deploy: The application is deployed to staging or production environments.
Monitor: Continuous monitoring of the application’s performance and logs to ensure it runs smoothly.