We can think of continuous integration and continuous delivery/deployment (CI/CD) as an automated sequence of steps – a work-flow pipeline. Together, CI/CD defines how developers deliver code changes to the pipeline and how that code is built, tested and released through the pipeline.
Continuous delivery/deployment then automatically sends the completed code to the next step in the pipeline, all the way to release.
The benefit to you is that the whole cycle time of integration, testing, feedback and delivery, which previously could take hours or days without automation, is now down to minutes, with far superior quality.
With continuous integration, each developer’s code work is automatically merged, built and tested with the rest of the code multiple times a day. With an immediate feedback loop, developers can address problems before they get too big, complicated and costly.
