CI/CD Pipeline Best Practices

Learn how to build robust and efficient CI/CD pipelines that don't make you want to cry

· By Yassine
cicd devops automation best-practices

CI/CD Pipeline Best Practices

Let’s talk about CI/CD pipelines. You know, those things that either save your life or make you question your career choices at 2 AM.

The Golden Rules

After breaking production one too many times, I’ve learned these golden rules:

1. Keep Your Pipeline Fast

Nobody likes waiting 45 minutes for tests to run. Here’s how to speed things up:

  • Parallelize tests: Run independent tests concurrently
  • Cache dependencies: Don’t download the internet every time
  • Use incremental builds: Only build what changed
  • Split large test suites: Break them into smaller, faster chunks
# GitHub Actions example
jobs:
  test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    strategy:
      matrix:
        test-suite: [unit, integration, e2e]
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v3
      - name: Cache dependencies
        uses: actions/cache@v3
        with:
          path: node_modules
          key: ${{ runner.os }}-node-${{ hashFiles('**/package-lock.json') }}
      - name: Run ${{ matrix.test-suite }} tests
        run: npm run test:${{ matrix.test-suite }}

2. Fail Fast, Fail Loud

Don’t wait until the end to find out something went wrong. The earlier you catch issues, the better:

#!/bin/bash
set -e  # Exit on any error

# Linting
echo "Running linters..."
npm run lint || exit 1

# Type checking
echo "Type checking..."
npm run type-check || exit 1

# Tests
echo "Running tests..."
npm test || exit 1

echo "✅ All checks passed!"

3. Environment Parity

Your staging environment should be as close to production as possible. Use the same:

  • Operating system
  • Runtime versions
  • Database versions
  • Configuration management

4. Automated Rollbacks

Things will break. Accept it. Plan for it.

deploy:
  steps:
    - name: Deploy
      run: ./deploy.sh
    - name: Health check
      run: ./health-check.sh
    - name: Rollback on failure
      if: failure()
      run: ./rollback.sh

Testing Strategies

The Test Pyramid

Remember this distribution:

  • 70% Unit tests: Fast, isolated, run everywhere
  • 20% Integration tests: Test component interactions
  • 10% E2E tests: Full user flows (expensive but valuable)

Don’t Skip Tests

I know, I know. You’re in a hurry. But trust me:

# This is not a test strategy
if [ "$FRIDAY" == "true" ]; then
  echo "Skipping tests, it's Friday 🍺"
  exit 0
fi

Security in CI/CD

Scan Everything

  • Container images: Use tools like Trivy
  • Dependencies: Check for known vulnerabilities
  • Secrets: Never commit them (use secret managers)
- name: Scan image
  run: |
    docker run --rm \
      aquasec/trivy image \
      --severity HIGH,CRITICAL \
      myapp:latest

Secrets Management

# ❌ BAD
- name: Deploy
  run: deploy.sh
  env:
    API_KEY: sk-1234567890abcdef

# ✅ GOOD
- name: Deploy
  run: deploy.sh
  env:
    API_KEY: ${{ secrets.API_KEY }}

Monitoring and Observability

Your pipeline should tell you:

  • ✅ What passed
  • ❌ What failed
  • ⏱️ How long it took
  • 📊 Trends over time

Common Pitfalls

  1. Flaky tests: Fix or quarantine them immediately
  2. Too many manual approvals: Automate what you can
  3. Ignoring failed builds: Treat them like production outages
  4. No rollback strategy: Always have a plan B

Conclusion

Building a good CI/CD pipeline is an iterative process. Start simple, measure everything, and continuously improve. Your future self (and your team) will thank you.

Remember: A good pipeline is one that you trust to deploy on Friday afternoon. If you’re not there yet, keep improving!

🚀 Happy deploying!

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