Continuous Delivery Pipeline Summary For Leaders

In recent years, the continuous delivery pipeline has shown to be a productive tool for creating digital goods, and it is now a prerequisite for your business to succeed as a great digital goods firm. A special framework for developing digital products, The ADAPT Methodology® ensures the success of leaders in the digital age!

The ADAPT Methodology® was developed because society has changed and leaders now require support in how they lead and design their digital product organizations. But before we do that, let's take a closer look at the Sprint Review meeting.

What is a continuous delivery pipeline?

A contemporary software development technique known as the Continuous Delivery Pipeline (CDP) links together many phases of software development, including automated builds, tests, and deployments.

The CDP is composed of four phases:

1. Continuous Exploration (CE)
2. Continuous Integration (CI)
3. Continuous Deployment (CD)
4. Release on Demand (RoD)

The mentioned ideas will still hold true whether your firm has more or fewer steps in its pipeline. You will comprehend how to apply CDP more effectively if you are familiar with the Agile Methodology and the Scrum Methodology because both techniques have similar guiding principles.

The steps of the Continuous Delivery Pipeline don't actually need to show physically, contrary to a frequent misperception about it. These logical steps can be seen as maps that link environmental checkpoints like testing, staging, and production.

Three key ideas—quality, frequently, and predictably—are taken into consideration by firms while adopting a CDP.

You'll see that these ideas are stressed across the continuous delivery pipeline as you read this essay.

A CDP's main objective is to take a concept and turn it into value for the user through a succession of automated testing, staging, production, and delivery steps.

The genius of having a CDP in place is that through a constant loop of activity and feedback, firms get to investigate, integrate, and deliver useful items into their market regularly and reliably.

The CDP may be thought of as an automated and dependable framework that contains a series of processes that code changes will go through on their way to production if you want to understand how this works.

In other words, the CDP enables software companies to effortlessly provide their customers with high-quality products on demand. Thanks to an effective procedure that develops, examines, and determines whether a product is suitable for the end-user.

A continuous delivery pipeline has the advantage of better manufacturing and delivery, which leads to delighted customers using high-quality products with cutting-edge technology.

Without a continuous delivery pipeline, digital product companies will face several disadvantages like:

• High-risk releases- ISoftware deployments are difficult and demanding when CDP is not present. The likelihood that something may go wrong has increased, and if it does, the consequences will be expensive and time-consuming.
• Slower time to market- The Software Development Lifecycle used to take weeks, months, or even longer due to conventional methodologies. The CDP aims to address the ineffectiveness and sustainability of those outdated procedures. Everything in the digital age is changing all the time, including the market, therefore if a firm doesn't have an effective roadmap like the CDP, they are working slowly while the competition is releasing new features and services.
  
  The expenses of creating, maintaining, and delivering changes to software increase due to inefficiency and a shortage of people. These kinds of difficulties wouldn't exist if a corporation had invested in a CDP.
• Low-quality product- Teams wind up spreading themselves too thin by spending more time and effort on various tasks as a result of the lack of automation, which surely degrades the quality of the goods and services.
• Higher costs. The expenses of creating, maintaining, and delivering changes to software increase due to inefficiency and a shortage of people. These kinds of difficulties wouldn't exist if a corporation had invested in a CDP.
• Unhappy teams- Teams are more prone to burnout when they are overburdened and under pressure. Additionally, when the team is put under stressful circumstances, the entire software development process is negatively impacted.

Therefore, it is imperative that errors are avoided to the greatest extent feasible for digital product companies that aspire to become leaders in their respective sectors.

Companies that strive for agile transformation in the digital age are the ones that create the required structures and procedures that turn them into market leaders with reachable growth and satisfied clients.

How does the continuous delivery pipeline work?

The four main steps of the software delivery process are Continuous Exploration (CE), Continuous Deployment (CD), Continuous Integration (CI), and Release on Demand (RoD), and these four processes make up the Continuous Delivery Pipeline.

Each stage's goal is to assess the new features' usability and quality from many perspectives while guarding against user-impacting disasters. Later in the text, we will go into detail about how each stage functions and how they all work together seamlessly.

Continuous Exploration (CE)

As the name implies, this stage focuses on exploration and design thinking, during which the company makes assumptions about potential new concepts and services for its target clients. Receiving and analyzing market research and client input is how this is accomplished.

Teams collaborate to examine and interpret data streams during the CE stage in order to determine what is necessary to satisfy market demands, such as a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) or Minimum Marketable Feature (MMF).

Teams in CE can assess what can be changed or updated by looking at the current structures and solutions. Additionally, this is where concepts for features and abilities are researched and developed. These changes are then described and meticulously prioritized in the Program Backlog, which is the final step.

Simply put, this is where parts—small, distributable, and testable units of goods—are constructed and kept in preparation for testing.

Continuous Integration (CI)

Features and components are used in the stage of Continuous Integration after being added to the Program Backlog. This is the stage where refinement occurs in a staged environment. To assess a product's robustness, stability, and quality, CI employs a variety of tests and evaluations. When something fails, it is reported, sent back to the team for revision, and then put though a number of tests and validations again.

Continuous Deployment (CD)

This stage of the process, which resembles a finish line, involves taking the features and updates from CI's staging environment and putting them into production after they have successfully passed all the tests. At this point, the features or modifications are monitored and again evaluated to make sure they work as intended. This is yet another crucial stage of the CDP since it is at this point that the company chooses when to make the new product or update available to customers.

Release on Demand (RoD)

Businesses decide when and how best to make a new feature or product available to customers during the stage of release on demand; depending on the market and company requirements, the update may be provided all at once or in phases. Businesses may carefully control the level of risk for each release here.

Why is it necessary for efficiency?

The CDP gives an overview of changes and feedback to the development team and everyone else engaged. As a result, the CDP gives developers the confidence they need to work on their products because the entire process is laid out as a dependable, repeatable, and predictable roadmap.

Humans are known to make mistakes and defects, and while this is a given, it creates a significant issue when it comes to situations when there is little room for error. Reducing the likelihood and prevalence of defects is crucial when it comes to software.

Naturally, there will occasionally be flaws in software, but having an automated framework that functions well makes a big difference because pipelines don't malfunction when under stress or strain from pressing deadlines.

Simply said, greater outcomes are achieved with less human interference.

The reason for this is that teams used to prepare for the worst-case situations during manual releases because the likelihood of something going horribly wrong in those circumstances was significant.

Solutions like the Customer Advisory Board (CAB), a type of manual approval, were adopted to improve the system. This was helpful, but it wasn't a foolproof method because, as was already said, humans make mistakes and work inefficiently, which makes the process tedious and slow.

In contrast, everything in pipelines like the CDP is programmed to function as predicted, leading to predictability. The order between the stages flows easily since each stage of the pipeline is created to operate in accordance with precise protocol, hence the name "pipeline."

One could worry about the quality of a product in the quick-moving environment of a pipeline, but don't worry—this is also taken care of throughout the pipeline by built-in sets of tests and criteria that serve as gateways.

As a piece of code moves through the pipeline, it is thoroughly examined and tested to uncover any flaws; if this occurs, it is rejected, and the system notifies the team with a report outlining the findings.

What happens next, though, if no issues are found and every test is successfully completed? You are correct if you believe that production is the subsequent stage.

Thus, owing to these pipeline gateways, problems are prevented from reaching production, ensuring that only high-quality products are offered to customers.

And that's basically how a pipeline like the CDP operates; little updates or enhancements to software move through the pipeline and, assuming they pass all tests, finally reach production.

The teams are allowed to release features and products in an auditable and risk-free way each time the pipeline is successful.

Perhaps you're now wondering if there even is such a thing as a standard pipeline. The fact is that each company will have its own version of the pipeline because the product's design determines how it is structured.

Whether the structure is straightforward or complex, the continuous delivery pipeline's main objective—the effective and timely release of high-quality software—remains the same.

The ADAPT MethodologyTM is what you've been looking for if you're an executive leader seeking a tried-and-true CDP plan that can assist your business in finding success and satisfied clients.

You'll have all the information and tools need to set up you and your digital product firm for success using the ADAPT MethodologyTM.

Continuous Delivery vs Continuous Deployment

Now, this doesn’t mean that human intervention is completely eliminated from the pipeline. Even today in the digital era, many digital product companies still involve some form of human interaction in their pipelines for various reasons.

In fact, this is a good time to explain another misconception between two terms that share the acronym CD: Continuous Delivery and Continuous Deployment.

Often used interchangeably, continuous delivery and continuous deployment are similar frameworks but also strikingly different from each other. You see, when we talk about having some form of human intervention, at least in the space between staging and production like deciding on when to send out a release, we are talking about continuous delivery.

Some of the people responsible for these checks and approvals are known as CAB, Project Managers (PM), and Scrum Teams. And then when we talk about a framework that has zero human involvement in the pipeline, we mean continuous deployment.

Continuous deployment is just like continuous delivery but the key difference is that the releases happen automatically.

As daunting as the idea of zero human involvement sounds, it’s been proven to work for many companies already, most of these are large companies that operate on a huge scale which makes this version of the pipeline ideal and sustainable.

Differences aside, both forms share an automated process and structure so companies can decide which version suits their needs and capabilities.

What do I gain by adopting continuous integration, continuous delivery, and continuous deployment?

It's perfectly acceptable if you're still debating whether or not you ought to adopt the CDP's approach. Weighing the benefits and drawbacks is necessary before making major changes. We've included the factors you should think about below to aid in your decision-making.

Continuous Integration

Cons:

• Your team must create automated tests for each new feature, upgrade, or bug fix.
• To keep track of the primary repository and execute automated tests whenever a new commit is made, a CI server is necessary.
• Your engineers must merge multiple times every day, at the very least.

Pros:

• Automated tests that catch regressions early result in fewer bugs entering the production environment.
• Thanks to early integration solutions that found issues, simpler builds are now ready for release.
• Reduced context switching since developers are alerted and given plenty of time to correct and enhance any breaks that arise in the build.
• A significant decrease in testing expenditures because the CI server can execute hundreds of tests quickly.
• The QA team will have more time to concentrate on creating and brainstorming improvements.

Continuous Delivery

Cons:

• A well-built foundation in continuous integration and a comprehensive test suite coverage for the codebase is a must
• Automated deployment is needed, even if a manual trigger is present
• Adoption of feature flags is also a need so that customers don’t get affected by incomplete features

Pros:

• More freed up time and reduced workload for your team since the sophistication of deploying software is taken care of
• The ability to push out more releases leads to an optimized feedback loop from end-users

Continuous Deployment

Cons:

• The calibre of your testing processes has to be excellent and well built as these will affect the quality of the releases
• Faster deployments mean more documentation that can cope with the increased speed and demand
• Feature flags become a necessity for proper coordination with other departments like support, marketing, PR, etc.

Pros:

• Automatic deployments for every change mean you have the ability to develop faster without the need to pause
• Easier fixes in case of problems and fewer risks with each release
• Happier customers who get to enjoy a consistent flow of new features and products at a better quality on a daily basis instead of monthly, quarterly, or yearly

How can I begin implementing the continuous delivery pipeline?

Keep in mind that the CDP is not magic. While it is a wonderful, intelligent solution, the reason it works so well is because of high standards through continuous, daily improvement. If you want to learn more about how to level up your existing pipeline for maximum results and efficiency, you can take our Digital Product Maturity Scorecard and also read our book ADAPT.

Before we explain the steps you can take to get started with CDP, here are several conditions to be aware of:

A Pipeline requires the support of platform provisioning and configuration management

In order to get the job done without hiccups, development teams need a pipeline that’s optimized. To achieve this your CDP needs to have support in the form of platform provisioning and configuration management, having this means your team has the ability to design, maintain and disassemble complete environments either at the push of a button or automatically.

With automated platform provisioning,  you can begin horizontally scaling your business and your software changes have the opportunity to be deployed and tested against properly configured and replicable environments (i.e. sandboxes).

It takes a mutual team effort from everyone to make it all work the way it should

Since we have covered the fact that the CDP connects multiple stages, it only makes sense that different groups of people be involved in the collaboration and supervision of the entire process. So, if you want to make things work properly in your pipeline, everyone has to be dedicated to ensure its success.

Focus on achieving quality first before adding any new functionality

Since the ultimate goal of the CDP is to help companies efficiently release quality products to the market in a timely fashion, it is an absolute must that you adhere to high standards of quality before even thinking of releasing a new update or functionality to the public. Don’t cut corners when it comes to this as the last thing you would want is to deliver sub-par products to your customers.

How to get started with the Continuous Delivery Pipeline

The ideal approach to getting started with the CDP is to start strategically and gradually. It is not advisable to rush into implementing the Continuous Delivery Pipeline all at once.

A recommended starting point is to evaluate your entire business framework and identify the biggest bottlenecks that are present. Once you have identified these bottlenecks in your organization, start by improving one part at a time to test and measure the improvements.

After mapping your current pipeline, use metrics such as the following to measure and understand the flow of value, and delays, and determine areas for improvement:

• Process Time. which is the amount of time needed to get work done in a single step
• Lead Time. which is the amount of time from the completion of work from the previous step until it’s done in the ongoing step
• Delay Time. which is the time when nothing is happening
• Per cent Complete and Accurate (%C&A). this represents the percentage of work that the following step can work on without needing to repeat the task. What often causes delays is poor quality in the previous steps. This metric helps pinpoint the steps in a pipeline where poor quality might be happening and leading to lengthier lead times which translate to delays in value delivery.

Align your existing pipeline roadmap to the continuous delivery pipeline

When your current pipeline is finally laid out and understood, you can then visually integrate its mapping into the model of the CDP. Doing this helps your organization clearly see how the entire flow would look once it is improved.

Determine areas for improvement

Now that you have a map of your current pipeline and the CDP, your team can begin looking for areas where improvements can be applied to reduce total lead time and boost efficiency. This step also includes looking at processing time and the quality (percent complete and accurate) of every step.

Keeping tabs on continuous delivery

When the CDP is viewed from a wider perspective, it becomes apparent just how extensive of a process it actually is. And because of its importance in the software development lifecycle, it is crucial that every single part of the pipeline is tracked and monitored, even if a large portion of it is automated. Because in doing so, you have the ability to incorporate Work in Progress (WIP) limits which help improve throughput and pinpoint and tackle bottlenecks. To do this you can make use of the Program Kanban.

Equipping the continuous delivery pipeline with DevOps

Given that the CDP is a type of delivery system which involves the speedy delivery of complex solutions within very short learning loops and high standards of cross-functional collaboration, it makes absolute sense to equip it with DevOps methods.

Now, the question is, is CDP a right fit for your organization? Let us know and comment below!