CI/CD Pipeline Best Practices

CI/CD pipelines automate the path from code to production. Good pipelines are fast, reliable, and catch issues early. Bad pipelines are slow, flaky, and create deployment fear. This guide covers building effective pipelines.

Pipeline Stages

Pipeline Design

Essential Stages

CI/CD PIPELINE DESIGN
═════════════════════

BASIC PIPELINE:
─────────────────────────────────────
build → test → deploy

Simple start

COMPREHENSIVE PIPELINE:
─────────────────────────────────────
┌─────────────────────────────────────┐
│              CI                      │
├─────────────────────────────────────┤
│ checkout → build → lint → test      │
│     │                    │          │
│     └── security scan ───┘          │
└─────────────┬───────────────────────┘
              │
              ▼ artifact
┌─────────────────────────────────────┐
│              CD                      │
├─────────────────────────────────────┤
│ deploy staging → smoke → approve    │
│          │                 │        │
│          ▼                 ▼        │
│   integration tests   deploy prod   │
│                            │        │
│                     smoke tests     │
└─────────────────────────────────────┘

STAGE DETAILS:
─────────────────────────────────────
Build:
├── Compile/transpile code
├── Install dependencies
├── Create build artifact
└── Fast, parallelizable

Lint:
├── Code style checks
├── Static analysis
├── Format verification
└── Catch issues early

Test:
├── Unit tests
├── Integration tests
├── E2E tests (if fast)
└── Confidence in correctness

Security:
├── Dependency scan
├── SAST (static analysis)
├── Secret detection
└── Security gates

Pipeline Optimization

Making It Fast

PIPELINE OPTIMIZATION
═════════════════════

PARALLELIZATION:
─────────────────────────────────────
Run independent jobs in parallel:

        ┌── lint
build ──┼── unit tests ──► deploy
        └── security scan

Instead of:
build → lint → tests → security → deploy

CACHING:
─────────────────────────────────────
Cache:
├── Dependencies (node_modules, etc.)
├── Build artifacts
├── Docker layers
├── Test fixtures
├── Huge time savings
└── Cache aggressively

FAST FEEDBACK:
─────────────────────────────────────
Order by speed and importance:
├── Lint first (fast, catches common issues)
├── Unit tests next (fast, high value)
├── Integration tests (slower)
├── E2E tests (slowest)
├── Fail fast
└── Quick feedback loop

SPLIT PIPELINES:
─────────────────────────────────────
PR pipeline (fast):
├── Build
├── Lint
├── Unit tests
├── Security basics
└── Quick feedback

Main branch (comprehensive):
├── Full test suite
├── Complete security
├── Deploy to staging
├── Integration tests
└── Thorough verification

Reliability

Stable Pipelines

PIPELINE RELIABILITY
════════════════════

FLAKY TESTS:
─────────────────────────────────────
Problem:
├── Tests pass sometimes, fail others
├── Erodes trust in pipeline
├── People ignore failures
├── Pipeline becomes useless
└── Serious issue

Fix:
├── Treat as high-priority bug
├── Quarantine while fixing
├── Don't just retry
├── Track flaky rate
├── Root cause analysis
└── Zero tolerance

ENVIRONMENT CONSISTENCY:
─────────────────────────────────────
├── Docker for consistent builds
├── Pinned dependency versions
├── Reproducible environments
├── Same tooling everywhere
└── No "works on my machine"

FAILURE HANDLING:
─────────────────────────────────────
├── Clear error messages
├── Artifacts on failure
├── Easy to reproduce locally
├── Rollback capability
├── Graceful degradation
└── Debuggable failures

MONITORING:
─────────────────────────────────────
Track:
├── Pipeline duration trend
├── Success rate
├── Flaky test rate
├── Stage bottlenecks
├── Data-driven improvement
└── Pipeline metrics

Deployment Strategies

Safe Deployments

DEPLOYMENT STRATEGIES
═════════════════════

BLUE-GREEN:
─────────────────────────────────────
├── Two identical environments
├── Deploy to inactive (green)
├── Switch traffic
├── Old (blue) is rollback
├── Fast rollback
└── Zero downtime

CANARY:
─────────────────────────────────────
├── Deploy to small % of traffic
├── Monitor for issues
├── Gradually increase %
├── Roll back if problems
├── Progressive rollout
└── Controlled risk

ROLLING:
─────────────────────────────────────
├── Update instances one by one
├── Always some healthy
├── Gradual transition
├── Natural for k8s/containers
└── Incremental update

FEATURE FLAGS:
─────────────────────────────────────
├── Deploy code disabled
├── Enable via flag
├── Separate deploy from release
├── Instant rollback
└── Decoupled deployment

GitScrum Integration

Tracking Pipeline

GITSCRUM FOR CI/CD
══════════════════

DEPLOYMENT TASKS:
─────────────────────────────────────
├── Track deployment-related work
├── Label: infrastructure
├── Pipeline improvements
├── Visible in sprint
└── First-class work

RELEASE TRACKING:
─────────────────────────────────────
├── Link commits to tasks
├── What shipped when
├── Release notes
├── Traceability
└── Connected

INCIDENT RESPONSE:
─────────────────────────────────────
├── Pipeline failures as tasks
├── Track resolution time
├── Post-mortem documentation
├── Improvement actions
└── Continuous improvement

Best Practices

For CI/CD Pipelines

1. Fast feedback — Under 10 min CI
2. Reliable — Fix flaky tests
3. Parallelized — Run jobs concurrently
4. Cached — Reuse work
5. Progressive deployment — Canary/blue-green

Anti-Patterns

PIPELINE MISTAKES:
✗ Slow pipelines (> 30 min)
✗ Ignoring flaky tests
✗ No caching
✗ Sequential when parallel possible
✗ Manual deployment steps
✗ No rollback plan
✗ Deploy straight to prod
✗ No monitoring

Related Solutions

• Continuous integration best practices
• Continuous deployment strategies
• DevOps culture implementation