90% of developers don't understand CI and CD

According to IDC, the global software market for DevOps reached an estimated $3.9 billion in 2017 and is expected to reach around $8 billion by 2022.

In an agile software development environment, work models and operations require the ability to be super-flexible to the company's changing needs. DevOps combines tools and practices that help software development and IT operations go hand in hand. This cross-functional working pattern is designed to minimize the system development life cycle duration and provide continuous deployment and delivery.

Ways to implement CI and CD

You may have a lot of ideas, and your product ideas may be the best, but if you don't deliver new releases regularly, you'll have a hard time keeping up with the competition around you. Continuous integration (CI) and continuous delivery and deployment (CD) are the integration and delivery of all major and minor changes to code, new features or products, or even Bug fixes.

These code changes are always deployable and automatically published in the pre-production environment. Typically, this happens at least once or more a day. This practice encourages frequent submission of small changes rather than infrequent submission of significant changes.

CI/CD pipeline permeability

A CI/CD pipeline is a way to deliver a software application to the client. This process goes through continuous integration of adding code changes or modifying existing code, automated testing phases, delivery of changes, and subsequent deployment to the staging environment. It automates all the steps involved in software development.

Stages in the CI/CD pipeline

This phase is mainly about adding new features or making minor changes to the current working mode to work more efficiently to meet customer needs. The pipe is triggered here by the source code repository. Any changes in the code trigger notifications.

The source code is compiled, and the system runs unit tests during the build phase. Once the unit tests pass, the integration tests are complete. All problems that arise at this stage must be resolved immediately. The Docker tool creates the server and moves the data into the registry in preparation for the next testing phase.

Automated testing is performed at this stage to ensure that there are no bugs throughout the software and to check that the software meets its intended function. These tests are conducted from the end user's perspective to verify the quality of the code. A failure in the test phase indicates an inaccuracy in the code, which causes the developer to rework and the test cycle to continue.

Once the software passes the testing phase, the executable can be deployed into production. It is good to have a staging environment where the internal work is like a production tool before pushing them directly into production. The staging environment acts as additional testing and review. Once it passes testing and reviews without bugs, the program is deployed into production.

A list of benefits of CI/CD pipelines

The primary purpose of building any software is to provide a robust solution to a problem. Software must be accurate, minimize the risks involved, and should be delivered to customers as quickly as possible. The CI/CD pipeline helps build this robust and accurate software. If a company ADAPTS to the CI/CD pipeline of agile methods, it can reap the following benefits:

● Inaccuracies in code and inconsistent structures detected in each iteration through the unit and functional testing.

● Improved failure detection and repair rates lead to an increase in new release days. This will help the product team focus more on new customer demands for product work. Quick feedback on released features serves this purpose.

● To test the durability of products through quality and pressure tests.

● Relatively small code changes in the CI/CD pipeline are achieved by integrating code snippets faster.

● By separating code errors when they occur, code changes are minor, and the average resolution time is shorter.

The importance of CI/CD pipelines to development and operations

In the new era of the software revolution, developers and operations people work together. In this case, the two goals are often relatively independent and transparent, leading to confusion in the environment. Developers and operations staff are combined through a set of tools and practices formally known as "DevOps". The CI/CD pipeline is the backbone of DevOps practices and tools. DevOps follows the principles of continuous integration, continuous delivery, and development through automated testing.

Software applications that include CI/CD pipelines in their working model respond more quickly to changes in code or the addition of new features through constant feedback activities.

As the response becomes faster, new code changes are effectively implemented, increasing productivity.

● High-quality software with short development cycles

Because every process in the CI/CD pipeline can be automated, the software development life cycle is shortened. Although the life cycle is short, quality can be closely monitored through continuous feedback and regular implementation of revised procedures.

●  Reliability

CI/CD pipes are always reliable and do not rebound at run time. Developers get frustrated when multiple failures hamper the runtime. Constant feedback and fault separation in the CI/CD pipeline make the software reliable and easy to use.

Because testing is automated, pipes can process hundreds of tests in seconds and provide reliable output. In traditional software development models, hundreds of tests cost a lot of money. In DevOps, testing is inexpensive and runs very fast.

Zentao's support for CI

Zentao's support for DevOps and continuous integration includes several aspects of Git, Subversion version system integration, Jenkins build task triggering and ZTF automated test scheduling. The ZTF automated test tool developed by Zentao can well drive 8 unit test frameworks to perform the test and pass the final results back to Zentao for a unified report presentation. The Zentao ZTF opens up the gap between project management and continuous integration tools, running through the different stages of the DevOps life cycle, such as continuous integration, continuous testing, and continuous deployment.

Zentao, provides you with professional DevOps solutions.