What is CI/CD & How Does It Work? | Basic Concepts and Structure

What is CI/CD Pipeline?

A CI/CD pipeline, or continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD), is a set of processes that help organizations deliver software faster by integrating new code into the existing development process.

The idea of a CI/CD pipeline is to move all development work from source control to production, so you can get new features into your product as soon as possible. This can be done manually or with automation tools like Jenkins, which rapidly builds and tests applications on multiple platforms without requiring any manual intervention from developers or testers. This article will explain what exactly a CI/CD pipeline is, how it works, and what its components are.

• Source Control Management (SCM) - This includes version control systems like Git as well as task management software such as TFS or TeamCity.
• Build Agent - A process for building projects using SCM.
• Continuous Integration System(CI)/Continuous Delivery Platform(CDP) - An automated testing platform that monitors changes made by developers during their workday(s) while they're working on them, so they can automatically trigger builds whenever changes are detected; this way there's no need for manual testing at all since everything runs through automated means instead.

CI/CD is generally a project management process used by software engineers and developers to manage software development projects. It is a set of steps that are used to build, test, and release software. It's essentially a project management process that helps you create an effective workflow for building software.

The CI/CD pipeline is a set of steps that are used to build, test, and release software.

The planning stage must happen before we work on technical tasks (code). This means that you should figure out what your goals are for this project and then decide how you’ll achieve them. Once you have figured out your goals for the project, there are several different ways in which you can plan out your CI/CD pipeline. You could just write down all the steps manually or use an online tool like Jira or Trello that lets people collaborate on projects together.

The planning stage must happen before we work on technical tasks (code).

This is where we decide what we are going to build, test, and release. The first thing that needs to be decided is the architecture of your CI/CD pipeline. A good way to do this is with a high-level plan and wireframes in plain text format. Once you have these two documents together, it will be easier for everyone involved in your project—including developers—to understand what needs doing when they get their hands dirty coding or testing their new features/bug fixes/etc.

Stages in CI/CD

Stage 1: Build a System 

This step involves compiling your code into executable binaries (e.g., .exe files) or source code that can be run by other programs on your computer or downloaded from the Internet. For example, if you're developing an app for Windows computers, then this would be the part where you compile all of your source code into a binary form so it can be run on those operating systems without needing special permissions from users who might need access for them not only install but also use the program(s) afterward.

Stage 2: Define Acceptance Criteria

Once you have your metrics and KPIs, it's time to define the acceptance criteria. This is where you'll need to set expectations for what success looks like for each feature or product iteration. For example: "A user must be able to find the correct restaurant in less than five seconds." Defining those acceptance criteria is an essential step in CI/CD pipeline management because it helps ensure that all parts of your software development process are working as intended. The more clearly defined these requirements are at every stage of development (and implementation), the better off you'll be moving forward as a company—and not just when it comes time for testing.

Stage 3: Use a Tool to Test The System

Now that you have a CI/CD pipeline, it's time to use a tool to test the system. This is where things get complicated.

• What is a tool? A tool is any piece of software that can be used for building, testing, and deploying applications. In this context, we're referring specifically to tools for writing unit tests (more on those later), but you can think of them as anything else you might use for testing purposes: databases or frameworks like Ruby on Rails; command-line tools like Rake; even web browsers such as Chrome or Firefox!
• What is a test? A unit test verifies that each part of an application works correctly individually—for example: when I click “Login” on my website and see the message “Welcome back!” appear in my browser window, then I know all parts worked properly together so far during development stage 2. Test means running tests against any changes made during previous builds; Tests should always pass with no problems found anywhere within their scope/area tested against before moving on to the next steps after completion; If something does go wrong during the testing phase - then stop right there! Fixing bugs quickly gives developers confidence knowing they've fixed these issues before moving on to the next steps after completion.

Stage 4: Deploy: If The System Passes, Ship It

If the system passes, ship it. If the system fails, fix it. Don't ignore a failed CI/CD pipeline because you don't have time to fix it (or because you don't want to spend money on fixing bugs). You need to be able to ship code when your software is complete and ready for release—and even then there are no guarantees that everything will work perfectly on every environment or device combination out there! But if something does go wrong in production, having the ability for quick rollbacks means that fixing issues becomes easier than trying something new again from scratch.

Wrapping Up:

As we covered the topic of what is CI/CD, it can be now summarized this technique is a way to keep your product development up to date. You can use it to get new features into production as soon as possible, by moving all development work from source control to production.