You need to ensure the delivery of your products, so it is important to secure and protect the delivery pipeline. Here are the non-negotiable procedural steps that experts employ throughout the development lifecycle of a software, to ensure perfect delivery.
Establish the Deployment Pipeline
Never allow a problematic code base make it to the production end. The more flaws you can identify during the building stage, the more reliable the finished product will be. By establishing a deployment pipeline that includes continuous integration, automated performance testing, and automating the path to production, you’re building not just a secure and reliable product, but a robust deployment system as well.
The Importance of the Delivery Pipeline
In the most basic terms, a delivery pipeline is a guide that shows the development team the path to production, by showing them the steps from start to finish. Laying out these steps allows the team to see the critical points in the building process, and be able to insert test suites into these areas to ensure the health and readiness of the build for production.
Automate Testing
Integrating test suites into the crucial stages of the building process is key in making sure that no flaw remains undetected before the product goes through to the next phase in the process. Testing the integrity of a build is the best way to protect and secure the pipeline.
Automating any test that can be automated can significantly reduce the amount of time that is normally consumed by this activity, in some cases by more than half. At the same time, it reduces the amount of error from manual testing, thereby improving the method and yielding results that make detecting and creating solutions that are more accurate and complete. With automated performance testing in place, it’s possible to allocate more time for manual testing, during the build stage and even during post-release.
The Importance of Proper and Time Efficient Testing
Testing ensures that flaws are detected before the product reaches the production stage, and that the system health is at its optimum at all times. The ability to detect flaws at every checkpoint in the building phase, post release, and during operations makes it easier for developers to rectify the issue and correct any problems that may otherwise have gone undetected without the proper testing methods in place. As a result, errors are contained, controlled, and corrected, making the build as flawless as possible and keeping systems running smoothly.
Working with Internal and External Teams
If your internal team is in the process of improving their workflow, including identifying the critical instances where testing should be inserted into the process, consulting with an external team for a period of time can alleviate some of the ongoing and current work that your team is currently handling, so that they can focus on process improvement for the time being. After this, work can be turned over back to them phase by phase, so that they can implement the new deployment pipeline process.
Creating a deployment pipeline, integrating testing throughout the software development lifecycle, and embracing automation are key to creating products and services that deliver more value to the customers, and something which the business can bank on. Not only will it improve work outputs within the organisation but also create stronger business relationships with customers.