Continuous Delivery (CD) is a software development approach that aims to improve the speed and efficiency of software delivery by automating the entire software release process. It involves continuous integration, testing, and deployment of software changes to production environments. The goal of continuous delivery is to ensure that software changes are released in a timely, predictable, and reliable manner.
The CD process begins with continuous integration, where developers frequently integrate their code changes into a central repository. This helps to identify and fix integration issues early in the development cycle. Once code changes are integrated, the CD pipeline automates the testing and deployment of the software changes.
The CD pipeline typically consists of several stages…
Build: The code changes are compiled into executable code and packaged into a deployable artifact.
Test: The code changes are automatically tested using automated testing tools and techniques, such as unit testing, integration testing, and acceptance testing. The test results are then automatically reported back to the development team.
Deploy: The deployable artifact is automatically deployed to a staging environment, where it is further tested and validated.
Release: Once the software changes have been validated in the staging environment, they are automatically released to the production environment.
Continuous delivery requires a high degree of automation and collaboration among development, testing, and operations teams. It relies on the use of tools such as version control systems, build servers, testing frameworks, and deployment automation tools to automate the entire software release process.