Top 13 CI/CD Best Practices to Use for Your Next Deployment

In today's fast-paced digital world, continuous delivery and continuous deployment have become the norm. Companies across various industries implement CI/CD (Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment) practices to speed up their software delivery process, reduce errors and downtime, and increase customer satisfaction.

However, choosing the right practices for your next deployment can be challenging. That's why we've compiled a list of the top 13 CI CD best practices you can use to streamline your deployment process and ensure your software delivery is seamless.

Whether new to CI/CD or looking to optimize your existing processes, this blog post is a must-read!

What is CI/CD - Understanding the Basics

CI/CD, or Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment, is a set of practices used by software development teams to automate the process of building, testing, and deploying code changes.

With CI/CD, developers can make small, incremental changes to the codebase and have them tested and deployed automatically, reducing the risk of errors and improving the speed of delivery.

Continuous Integration involves the frequent Integration of code changes into a shared repository, with automated tests being run to check for any issues.

Conversely, continuous deployment involves automatically deploying the code changes to production once they have passed the automated tests. Together, these practices allow teams to deliver high-quality software faster and more confidently.

Top 13 CI/CD Best Practices

1. Automated testing

Automated testing is a key CI/CD pipeline best practice that helps identify and fix issues early in development. By automating the testing process, developers can test their code changes quickly and efficiently, allowing them to catch bugs and defects before they make it to production.

Many tools are available for automated testing, such as Selenium, JUnit, and TestNG, which can be integrated into your CI/CD pipeline to run tests automatically whenever code changes are made. '

These tools can be used to test different aspects of your application, including unit tests, integration tests, and end-to-end tests.

2. Rollback

It can help to minimize the impact of errors or issues in your production environment. Rollback involves planning to quickly and effectively roll back changes if they cause issues or unintended consequences in the production environment.

To implement a rollback strategy, you should clearly understand your application's dependencies, infrastructure, and configuration and how they interact with each other. You should also have a plan for how to revert changes and deploy a previous version of your application if necessary.

3. Build Only Once

The Build Only Once principle is a fundamental CI/CD pipeline best practice that ensures that each build is created only once and then deployed to multiple environments, including testing, staging, and production. This helps to ensure consistency across environments and reduces the risk of issues arising due to differences in the build.

To implement Build Only Once, you should use a reliable build system, such as Jenkins, Travis CI, or CircleCI, to create a single build artifact that can be deployed to multiple environments. You should also use version control tools like Git to ensure that each build is tracked and documented.

4. Release Often

It emphasizes the importance of frequently delivering new features and updates in small, manageable increments. This helps to reduce the risk of large, complex deployments and allows for faster feedback and iteration.

To implement Release Often, you should create a streamlined deployment process, with automated testing and continuous IntegrationIntegration to catch and address issues early in the development cycle. You should also prioritize your feature backlog and focus on delivering the most valuable features first.

Also Read: Why Do You Need CI/CD?

CI/CD Best Practices in AWS

1. Use AWS CodeStar with CodePipeline

AWS CodeStar with CodePipeline is a powerful combination of AWS services that can help to streamline your CI/CD process and improve your overall development efficiency.

CodeStar provides a unified dashboard for managing your entire software development pipeline, while CodePipeline offers an automated pipeline for building, testing, and deploying your code.

By using this combination of services, you can easily create and manage your entire software development pipeline in one place.

2. Use Amazon VPC

Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) is a service that enables you to launch Amazon Web Services (AWS) resources into a virtual network that you've defined.

VPC provides several benefits for implementing CI/CD practices, such as improved security, better control over network traffic, and greater flexibility in deploying and managing resources.

By using Amazon VPC, you can create a dedicated network environment for your CI/CD pipeline, which can help to isolate it from other applications and resources in your AWS account.

This can enhance your security posture and reduce the risk of data breaches or unauthorized access

3. Secure the CI/CD Pipeline

Ensuring the security of the CI/CD pipeline is crucial for an organization that relies on continuous delivery to deploy applications.

Your pipeline could be vulnerable to cyber threats without proper security measures, resulting in data breaches, downtime, or other issues.

To secure your CI/CD pipeline, you should implement security best practices such as role-based access control (RBAC), multi-factor authentication (MFA), and continuous monitoring.

You can use AWS security tools like AWS Security Hub, AWS Config, and AWS CloudTrail for pipeline monitoring and compliance.

CI/CD Best Practices in Azure

1. Secure Service Integration

Secure service integration is the first and most crucial step when building a successful CI/CD pipeline in Azure. Integrating services securely ensures that the pipeline is protected from potential security breaches.

To achieve secure service integration, it is essential to use secure connections such as HTTPS and SSL/TLS.

Additionally, sensitive data must be protected by secure keys and secret management. Access controls must be implemented to restrict unauthorized access to sensitive resources.

2. Build Team, Not Silos

Collaboration between development, testing, and operations teams is essential to ensure the pipeline runs smoothly and efficiently.

Breaking down silos and fostering a collaborative culture helps improve communication, increase transparency, and promote innovation.

In a well-functioning CI/CD pipeline, Dev and testing teams work closely to ensure code is validated at each pipeline stage.

Operations teams work with development teams to ensure smooth deployment and issues are addressed promptly.

By working together, teams can identify problems early, make informed decisions, and quickly resolve issues.

Also Read: Migrating from AWS to Azure?

CI/CD Best Practices in Kubernetes (K8s)

1. Using Git-based Workflows such as GitOps

GitOps is a method of deploying and managing Kubernetes applications using Git as the single source of truth for the application code and infrastructure configuration.

With GitOps, all changes to the application code or infrastructure configuration are made through Git commits. They are automatically applied to the Kubernetes cluster using a continuous delivery tool like Flux.

This approach helps ensure consistency and reliability in your deployments and provides version control and auditing capabilities.

2. Testing and Scanning Container Images

One of the best practices for CI/CD in Kubernetes is to test and scan container images to detect any potential issues before they're deployed to production.

This involves using tools such as Kubernetes Admission Controllers, which can be configured to automatically scan container images for vulnerabilities and compliance issues.

Additionally, you can use third-party tools like Aqua Security, Twistlock, or Anchore to scan container images for known vulnerabilities, malware, and other security threats.

By implementing container image testing and scanning as part of your CI/CD pipeline in Kubernetes, you can reduce the risk of security breaches and ensure that your applications function as expected.

Also Read: Top Kubernetes Best Practices

CI/CD Best Practices in Terraform

1. Use Version Control System

A version control system (VCS) like Git is crucial when implementing CI/CD practices with Terraform. VCS allows developers to track and manage changes, collaborate with team members, and revert to previous code versions if necessary.

It ensures that your codebase is well-organized and easily maintainable and provides a robust collaboration and teamwork environment.

Additionally, it provides the ability to track changes, recover from disasters, and perform effective code reviews. Using a VCS, you can ensure that your code is high quality and ready for production deployment.

2. Modularize your code

With modularization, you can break down your code into smaller, reusable components that are easier to manage and maintain. This allows you to quickly change specific parts of your infrastructure without modifying the entire codebase.

Modularization promotes code reuse and reduces duplication, leading to more efficient development cycles. By implementing this practice, you can simplify your CI/CD pipeline and improve your deployments' overall stability and reliability.

How to Determine if Your CI/CD Implementation is Effective?

1. Cycle Time

Cycle time refers to the time it takes to deliver a feature from concept to production. By measuring cycle time, you can gain insights into the speed and efficiency of your development and deployment processes.

A shorter cycle time indicates that CI/CD pipeline is working effectively, with fewer bottlenecks and delays in the deployment process.

By continuously monitoring cycle time and identifying areas for improvement, you can optimize your CI/CD pipeline. You can also ensure that your deployments are faster, more reliable, and better aligned with your business objectives.

2. Time to Value

This metric measures the time it takes to deliver business value through your deployment pipeline, from the initial idea to the actual value realization.

A shorter time to value indicates that your CI/CD pipeline is delivering business value more quickly and efficiently.

Measuring time to value can help you gain insights into how your deployment pipeline contributes to your organization's success and identify areas for improvement.

3. Error Rates

Error rates are a crucial metric for assessing the effectiveness of your CI/CD implementation. High error rates indicate inefficiencies or flaws in your deployment pipeline, leading to more frequent errors and defects in deployments.

Tracking error rates gives insight into the quality of deployments and identifies areas for improvement in your CI/CD pipeline.

This can help you catch errors early in the deployment process. You can address them before they become more severe issues that could result in costly downtime or system failures.

4. Uptime

Uptime measures the percentage of time that your application or infrastructure is operational and accessible to users.

High uptime indicates that the deployment pipeline is stable and reliable, delivering changes to your infrastructure with minimal disruption to your users.

Low uptime indicates issues with the deployment pipeline, such as frequent errors or system failures, causing downtime and impacting the user experience.

5. Team Retention

Team retention is an often-overlooked metric for assessing the effectiveness of your CI/CD implementation.

A well-designed CI/CD pipeline can increase job satisfaction and motivation for your team members, contributing to higher team retention rates.

When your team members feel that they have the necessary tools and resources to do their job well, they are more likely to stay with your organization long-term.

On the other hand, if your CI/CD pipeline is inefficient, slow, or unreliable, team members may become frustrated and more likely to seek opportunities elsewhere.

6. Infrastructure Costs

Infrastructure cost is a crucial metric for assessing the effectiveness of your CI/CD implementation. A well-designed CI/CD pipeline can lead to lower infrastructure costs by improving the efficiency and reliability of your deployment process.

Automating the Deployment of infrastructure and applications can reduce the time and resources required for manual configuration and testing, leading to significant cost savings.

Also Read: Karpenter vs Cluster Autoscaler

Benefits of Using CI CD Best Practices in Your Org

1. Small Code Changes

By breaking down changes into smaller, more manageable chunks, you can reduce the risk of introducing errors into your codebase and improve the efficiency of your development process.

With a CI/CD pipeline, changes can be tested and deployed quickly and automatically without requiring lengthy manual testing and validation.

This saves time and reduces the risk of code conflicts and errors that can occur when multiple developers are working on the same codebase.

2. Fast Release Rate

Automating testing and deployment processes can significantly reduce the time it takes to release new features and updates to the software.

With a well-designed CI/CD pipeline, changes can be tested and deployed quickly and efficiently. It will allow your organization to respond rapidly to changes in the market and user feedback.

This helps you stay competitive and improves customer satisfaction by delivering new features and updates more quickly.

3. Faster Mean Time to Resolution (MTTR)

Implementing CI/CD best practices in your organization, including achieving a faster Mean Time to Resolution (MTTR), can benefit you.

By automating your testing and deployment processes, you can detect and address issues early on before they become bigger problems.

This approach can help your team identify issues in a more timely manner. That will further reduce the amount of time it takes to resolve problems. A faster MTTR leads to higher quality software, as well as enhanced customer satisfaction, by reducing the amount of downtime caused by software issues.

4. Fault Isolations

One of the key benefits of implementing CI/CD best practices in your organization is improved fault isolation.

You can identify issues and isolate faults by breaking down code into smaller components and deploying changes in smaller increments.

This approach allows you to pinpoint the source of the problem instead of having to sift through a large and complex codebase to identify the issue.

5. Smaller Backlog

With CI/CD processes, you can focus on delivering small, incremental changes to your software, which can be easily managed and deployed. This approach allows your team to prioritize work more effectively, enabling them to focus on the most critical tasks.

Smaller backlogs also mean your team can respond more quickly to changing requirements and customer feedback.

With a more agile development process, you can quickly pivot and make changes to your software. It will also help you avoid getting bogged down in a long list of outstanding tasks.

6. Customer Satisfaction

One of the benefits of implementing CI/CD best practices in your organization is the potential for improved customer satisfaction.

With faster release cycles, small and frequent updates, and improved fault isolation, customers are likely to have a positive experience with your product or service.

By continuously integrating and deploying new features and fixes, you can keep up with customer demands.

Dos & Don'ts of CI/CD Best Practices - A Checklist

While CI/CD best practices can greatly benefit your organization, it's important to be mindful of pitfalls and mistakes. Here are some dos and don'ts to keep in mind as you implement CI/CD:

Dos of CI/CD Best Practices

• Treat infrastructure as code.

• Conduct peer reviews before applying changes.

• Establish infrastructure code patterns/designs

• Use version control for infrastructure code

• Utilize bug tracking/ticketing systems

• Test infrastructure changes like code changes

• Standardize builds using a consistent system such as Maven or Gradle.

• Emphasize unit testing, aiming for 100% code coverage.

• Ensure that unit tests make up 70% of overall testing and are regularly updated.

• Organize developers into small, integrated teams with no more than 12 members.

• Encourage frequent code commits to the main trunk without long-running feature branches.

• Treat continuous delivery configuration as code.

Don'ts of CI CD Best Practices

• Having long-running feature branches that lead to complicated merges.

• Relying on manual tests and approvals.

• Using manual approval processes, gates, code reviews, and security reviews.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the best tools to implement CI/CD?

Several popular tools to implement CI/CD include Jenkins, GitLab CI/CD, CircleCI, Travis CI, TeamCity, and AWS CodePipeline. The tool choice may depend on factors such as the size of the organization, the technology stack, and the project's requirements.

What are the 3 advantages of having a CI CD Pipeline?

The three advantages of having a CI/CD pipeline are small code changes, a fast release rate, and increased team productivity.

What is the most used CI CD tool?

Some popular options include Jenkins, GitLab CI/CD, Travis CI, CircleCI, and AWS CodePipeline.

Further Reading