Improve pipeline efficiency: you need to know how to identify the main obstacles in ci/cd pipeline

Many enterprises have adopted continuous integration 、 Delivery and deployment  (CI/CD)  To release products more frequently .CI/CD Pipelines accelerate software development , But at the same time , There are also factors that hinder its efficiency . Read this article , You will learn how to judge the factors that hinder the efficiency of pipeline operation , Find out where they are and solve them . When the factors that hinder the efficiency of pipeline operation no longer exist , Your CI/CD Pipeline efficiency will continue to improve , Save manpower and financial resources for the company .

Anything about CI/CD Problems or puzzles ,

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Continuous integration 、 The development and delivery pipeline helps accelerate software development . A good use case is ,Autodesk use CI/CD And then increased productivity . If implemented properly , Pipeline can shorten the time to market , Improve new features and version stability .

But do you know what happened inside the pipe ？ Can you identify and remove obstacles that hinder its efficient operation ？ It is not easy to know if there are obstacles and where they are .

therefore , It is difficult to judge whether there are obstacles , And its specific location , And the solution . In this article , I will help you identify some of the major obstacles you may encounter , And put forward a set of effective solutions to a series of problems .

Your company's CI/CD What is culture ？

Before delving into the technical aspects , Let's have a look at your company's CI/CD Culture . Is it a culture in which every developer is actively involved and fully engaged ？ Are they aware of CI/CD Importance to the performance and success of the company ？ Or are they just slightly aware of CI/CD The existence and function of , And the principle of its existence and function ？

As with any topic , The more people participate in an issue , The more likely they are to support . When they participate and support , They can enjoy the success and joy of deeply participating in this issue , namely CI/CD The success of can also be seen as the success of developers .

Besides , When this enthusiasm for participation exists , When you need more resources to improve it , You are applying CI/CD There will be fewer obstacles . For these reasons , I strongly recommend that you consider your CI/CD Culture .

Here are three suggestions ：

• Carry out group education courses , Sudden appearance has advantages .

• Invite external experts to discuss practical success stories .

• Hold regular webinars or group discussions , Analyze existing problems and provide solutions .

These are just a few ways . I'm sure you have other solutions .

What are your pipeline indicators ？

Now let's consider more quantitative methods ; After all , If you don't know what the problem is , You don't know where to start , So as to achieve the desired goal .

1、 How quickly developers can configure new environments ？

Whether the developer is new to the company 、 A new department or a new code base , You should pay attention to the following points ：

• Can they quickly configure new development environments ？

• How fast do they go from zero to work ？

• Whether it is feasible to abandon the existing environment and start over ？

“CI and CD One of the main advantages of is to provide new functions for rapid development .”

If developers can't quickly configure a new development environment , They will not be as efficient as they should be .

Whether the process of configuring a new development environment is at the discretion of each developer ？ Do they need a manual checklist 、 Run scripts and identify dependencies ？ Or whether you can use industry standard configuration tools （ Such as Ansible、Terraform or Docker） To automatically configure the environment ？

2、 How fast the test runs ？

How long does your entire test suite take to run ？ It will be finished in a short time , It will last for hours or even days ？

There is no such thing as average running time , Because no two applications have the same functionality . I'm not sure if there is a minimum or maximum execution time for the standard . But here's the thing , They don't take long to run . The longer it takes , The more likely developers are to avoid running them .

In view of the above ：

• How to improve its performance ？

• Are all tests necessary ？

• Whether the written test does not measure anything meaningful ？

• Can you write tests more effectively ？

• Whether you should invest resources to improve the testing knowledge reserve of the development team ？

Review the current test suite , Include

unit testing 、 The acceptance test 、 Integration testing and system testing

etc. , Think about how to improve them , And consider further investment in continuous testing education .

3、 How quickly can you deploy new functionality ？

Streamlined CI/CD Pipeline can make you more competitive , Because you can release fixes and features faster .

How is your deployment ?  They grow organically into a whole , Or become a complicated mess ？ Can new methods rationalize or simplify them ？ Is it time to bring in professionals ？

Are there any leftover baggage , The process takes too long , Or because the software is old or the function is out of date ？

4、 Do you have obstacles or bottlenecks ？

We have discussed unit tests that run too long or tests that do not run . But that's not the only thing that's got your pipeline in trouble . There are also obstacles or bottlenecks ：

• Job Whether there are too many dependencies between ？ Dependency is a form of coupling , And tightly coupled Job It is fragile. . They break easily , It's hard to regroup .

• How many do you have Job technological process ？ The simpler, the better .

• Is your code repository too large ？ Large repositories of a single architecture take longer to update and check out , Need to decompose code to simplify pipeline .

How is your review process ？

CI/CD Pipeline inspection is not a one-time inspection , You need to schedule regular checks after each major code release CI/CD The Conduit , And regular inspection .

How transparent is your plumbing tool ？

Establishing a pipeline and maintaining transparency are two different things , How transparent is it ？ for example ：

• Will you build 、 Integration and deployment metrics are positioned and published in easily accessible locations , For example, on the computer display in the developer's office ？

• Is it possible to monitor when and why builds fail ？

• Can everyone access this information ？

The above question I raised is not to suspect that there are dishonest employees in your enterprise or there are doubts about their loyalty . The reason why I say this , Because when information is available quickly , It will bring the following obvious benefits .

These benefits include ：

• The ability to hold people accountable .

• The group is aware of the decline in quality standards / The situation of promotion .

• Positive affirmation of successful results , For example, provide new functions and repair functions .

therefore , I suggest , If you haven't started doing this yet , Start collecting as much pipeline information as possible immediately . Then do your best to make this information easy to access .

however , Don't just show raw data . The raw data is good , But they can't be done by giving appropriate context or showing trends over time , So that we can know whether the pipeline function is improving or decreasing , Identify when to take action .

How long does it take from creation to feature release ？

Now? , We have considered a series of isolated areas , Let's take a step back , More aerial views of the pipeline . How long does it take from the special report to the special release ？ 

What is the process like ？ It is a simplification 、 Well documented 、 Well defined and smooth process ？ Or more casual and disorderly ？ In this way , You can go deeper 、 More thoroughly understand how it fits together and works .

After you review the situation , The following questions should be considered ：

• Do you have a standard authoring template ？

• Do you have standardized review rules and procedures ？

• How to publish them ？

• From writing to function implementation （ Or give up ） How long does it take? ？

• Whether the way you write cards is suitable for developers in the enterprise ？ let me put it another way , Do these cards contain unnecessary terms 、 Abbreviations or other internal terms ？

• Are they too complex 、 Too long to create or trying to do too much ？

• What is the reporting process from beginning to end ？ Whether it is effective and transparent ？

Conclusion

Although the question I raised is not very specific 、 Technical or explicit , But these questions are helping to ascend CI/CD A good starting point for pipeline efficiency . Suppose you don't think about the process in its entirety , Nor do they understand the key areas that need to be addressed , Just start in a hurry . under these circumstances , There is a risk ,  That is, you pay a lot of energy and money but get the lowest return .

If you desire to improve CI/CD Efficiency and effectiveness of pipelines , I hope this article can provide a good start for your research . Please take these suggestions as a starting point , A starting point that inspires your ideas and efforts and builds over time .

This is a deep and complex field , Cannot be solved or improved quickly or easily . however , Continuous improvement CI/CD Pipelines can greatly save energy and money .

Learn more about CI/CD The function of the pipeline 、 Function and usage , Please contact us immediately （

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Source of the article ：https://www.cloudbees.com/blog/how-to-identify-major-blockers-in-a-ci-cd-pipeline