The goal of any product launch is to quickly deliver the quality product to users. That is why automation adds value for business.
Continuous integration (CI) and continuous deployment (CD) seem to be very similar technical practices. CI includes stages of building and testing software. It makes integration a simple repeatable process. CD involves deploy to staging, acceptance tests, deploy to production and smoke tests. It implies automation at a high level that makes it as quickly as possible.
Why do you need CI/CD in your software project?
Continuous integration
Rules of software development process are constantly changing. Continuous integration reshapes software operations to optimize efficiency, quality and reliability.
- Efficiency
One of the main goals of continuous integration is to make integration a simple everyday process. Timely decision to use CI reduces the costs and leads to quality product. Faster software building and testing saves your time and money. Continuous integration allows you to get real-time feedback from users. - Quality
There is a smaller gap between the current state of app and the final result when the upgraded code is tested regularly. CI allows developers to integrate their code into a common repository. Everyday committing allows developers to merge, move, add and remove changes with other developers simultaneously. Reducing inconsistency between developers creates comfort culture in a development team. - Reliability
Frequent code integration can reduce the possible risks of production. Continuous integration excludes the manual testing and makes the process effective. Bugs are an essential part in software development process, but fixing bugs in time can protect you from any unexpected problems. With adjusted CI you can be confident of your product and track it on any stage of development.
Continuous deployment
The updating process is often painful for users and they don’t pay any attention to new releases in markets. Continuous deployment brings all the necessary ingredients into successful software product recipe.
- Automation
Continuous deployment excludes human intervention and provides the full automation. It allows to make updates automatically and more frequently that leads to quality improvement and fastening product-to-market. - Innovation and Experimentation
Continuous deployment provides highly innovation and experimentation approach. Thanks to usage of CD while upgrading software versions development team can get a quick feedback from users all the time. It stimulates developers to update and improve software to make customer journey more simple and profitable. - Flexibility
Collaborative development and continuous deployment allow to change prioritizes during the work. Development team don’t have to wait for the next release to plan the workflow for the day. All the small changes relate to each other and can be easily discussed in real time.
If you get rid of using CI/CD practices, you risk to postpone your product’s launch. When there is no usage of CI and CD the result will always be less predictable.
Continuous integration and deployment bring benefits both for developers and business owners. Exposit can guide your software product to market using best practices of continuous integration and deployment for the most effective solution.
