During the compilation and release of software, words like CI and CD can often be seen. In fact, they are professional abbreviation phrases, here are their concepts and differences.
agileSoftware Development
Agile software development, full English name: Agile software development, is a new software development method that has gradually attracted widespread attention since the 1990s. It is a software development capability to deal with rapidly changing needs. Their specific names, concepts, processes, and terms are different. Compared with "non-agile", it emphasizes closer collaboration between programmer teams and business experts, face-to-face communication (think it is more effective than written documents), frequent delivery of new software versions, compact and self-organized teams, code writing and team organization methods that can adapt to changes in demand, and pay more attention to the role of people in the software development process.
CI: Continuous Integration (CONTINUOUSINTEGRATION）
Basic concepts
The full name of CI is Continuous Integration, which means continuous integration.
In a CI environment, developers will frequently submit code to the backbone. These newly submitted codes need to be compiled andAutomated testingVerify the stream.
During the continuous integration process, we attach great importance to automated test verification results to ensure the quality problems of all submissions after the merger line and to warn of some possible problems.
Required conditions
- The team needs to create automated test cases for each new feature, code improvement, or problem fix.
- You need a continuous integration server that monitors code submissions and automates testing of each new submission.
- The R&D team needs to submit the code as quickly as possible, at least once a day.
Benefits brought
- Through automated testing, the results of the regression test can be obtained in advance, avoiding submitting some problems to delivery production.
- Release and compile will be easier because all problems have been avoided at the beginning of the merger.
- Reduce work problem switching, R&D can quickly obtain the news of construction failures and can be solved quickly before starting the next task.
- The cost of testing is greatly reduced, and your CI server can run hundreds of tests in a matter of seconds.
- The time your QA team spends on testing will be greatly shortened, and will focus more on improving quality culture.
CD：Continuous deployment（CONTINUOUS DEPLOYMENT）
Basic concepts
The full name of CD is Continuous Deployment, which means continuous deployment.
In a CD environment, quickly deliver high-quality products through automated build, test and deployment cycles. To some extent, it represents the level of engineering of a development team. Any modification that passes through all existing workflows will directly meet the customer. Only when a modification fails to build in the workflow can it be prevented from being deployed to the product line.
Continuous deployment is an excellent way to accelerate feedback loops with customers, but it will put pressure on the team because there is no longer a "release day". Developers can focus on building software and they see their modifications come online just minutes after they finish their work.
Basically, when the developer merges a commit in the main branch, the branch will be built, tested, and if everything goes well, deployed to production.
Required conditions
- The R&D team's testing concept is relatively complete. The robustness of the test unit directly determines your delivery quality.
- Your documentation and deployment frequency should be consistent.
- Feature logos become an inherent part of the process of publishing significant changes to ensure you can coordinate with other departments (support, marketing, PR…).
Benefits brought
- Releases are faster because you don't need to stop and wait for release. Each submission will automatically trigger the publishing flow.
- When releasing in small batches, the risk is reduced, and problems can be easily fixed when found.
- Customers can see our continuous improvement and improvement every day, not every month or quarter, or yearly.
CD: Continuous Delivery (CONTINUOUS DELIVERY)
Basic concepts
The full English name of continuous delivery is: Continuous delivery, the abbreviation is also CD, it is a kind ofSoftware EngineeringTechnique.
It can complete the output process of software products in a short cycle to ensure that the software can be stable and continuously maintained in a situation that can be released at any time. Its goal is to make software construction, testing and release faster and more frequently. This method can reduce the cost and time of software development and reduce risks.
Sometimes, continuous delivery is also confused with continuous deployment. Continuous deployment means that all changes will be automatically deployed to production environments. Continuous delivery means that all changes can be deployed into a production environment, but for business reasons, it is possible to choose not to deploy. If continuous deployment is to be implemented, continuous delivery must be implemented first.
Required conditions
- You need to have powerful continuous integration components and enough test items to meet the needs of your code.
- Deployment requires automation. Triggering is manual, but once the deployment begins, there is no human intervention.
- Your team may need to accept feature switches, and unfinished functional modules will not affect the online product.
Benefits brought
- The tedious deployment work is gone. Your team doesn't need to spend a few days preparing for a release.
- You can deliver faster, which speeds up the feedback loop with your customers.
- Easily deal with small changes and accelerate iteration.