DevOps is a blend of "development" and "operations" that helps foster efficient development and delivery of applications, its main principle being the cultural change. Documenting the DevOps process can help gain control and visibility; visualization is the key to understanding any process. If you are planning to get certified in DevOps, do check out Courses on DevOps for a guided prep. To ensure that no step is missed in the entire process, it is imperative to have a DevOps pipeline diagram. Any requirement based on diagrams can easily be consumed, understood, and contextualized by business users.
A DevOps pipeline diagram is a collective illustration of the stages involved in a pipeline plus the automated procedures, tools, environments, and technologies that enable operations, non-developers, and developers, all breathing in an environment, to work together through the entire software development lifecycle. A DevOps pipeline diagram can also be called a CI/CD flow diagram.
As per the diagram above, you can see the stages included in the CI/CD process flow diagram and how the output from each stage is taken as feedback making the complete chain iterative.
The two most paramount components of a DevOps CI/CD pipeline diagram are Automation and Continuity. All the stages are automated, with some exceptions where manual intervention is required, and continuous output is fed back into the loop.
The importance of mapping your DevOps pipeline offers an opportunity for your organization to have a checklist of all the tools, software, and steps needed to complete a development cycle as a whole. As part of this process, each step and tool are examined to monitor and track how the work is progressing. Including input from each team ensures that no steps are overlooked.
Mapping a CI/CD flow diagram will give an overview of the end-to-end process, including the indistinct stages of SDLC, activities occurring at each stage, environments, and a list of tools used for SCM, Build, Repository management, CI, CD, etc.
With multiple teams and environments/sandboxes, especially in a large organization, it is important to keep track of the delivery cycles and avoid any potential conflicts whilst promoting collaboration, communication, and sharing amongst the teams.
In mapping the end-to-end DevOps ci/cd pipeline, relationships between tool environments can be determined and made sure that everything is integrated seamlessly.
In case you are interested in learning more about DevOps, do explore DevOps Best Training programs.
When mapping the DevOps process, some steps may be obvious, while others can be neglected. There is a tendency where businesses can conflate several steps into one, which is not an accurate representation of what happens, and intermediate stages are ignored, such as the need for integration, testing, and version control.
This is where the DevOps pipeline map will come into the picture, it will depict the tools, stages, and environments in a streamlined manner making it easy to understand and catch any loopholes in the entire process. Furthermore, a CI/CD flow diagram can uncover redundant quality assurance steps in the toolchain, allowing you to knock them out during the build phase rather than later.
To understand it better, let us break down each stage of the pipeline and see how they feed back into one another:
Now that you have understood the importance of a DevOps pipeline diagram, to find out how to draw a pipeline diagram and build a solid foundation in DevOps, go through DevOps Foundation Training online.
DevOps pipeline diagram is a package of core elements viz. Continuous Integration (CI), Continuous Delivery, Continuous Deployment (CD), Continuous Testing, Continuous Feedback, and Continuous Operations and the tools used for each of these.
If you are wondering how to create a DevOps Pipeline Diagram, follow the steps below:
This is where you decide where to store the source code with version control to avoid merge conflicts. Since you will be working in shared environments on the same codebase, GitHub is by far the most popular code-hosting website. GitLab and Bitbucket are robust alternatives.
Each organization, as per their specific requirements and needs, can pick the best fit CI/CD tool. Jenkins is the preferable choice here, with its pack of powerful plugins and easily customizable feature. Other choices can be GitLab, TeamCity, and Bamboo.
A build server, also known as a CI server, is a stable and centralized environment acting as an integration point for all developers. Two of the most popular solutions for creating builds are Jenkins and Travis-CI. Jenkins is completely free and open-source, while Travis-CI is a hosted solution that is also free but only for open-source projects.
The most common test runs are unit, integration, regression, and functional testing, each of the testing stages can be automated to run after the other. The idea is to run tests without disrupting the development workflow and ensure error-free code. TestComplete is a fine choice having a Jenkins plugin to store test history.
The final stage of your pipeline, where your application is ready to be deployed to production. Now, this can be done manually if it is a significant change for easy monitoring and identifying any flags. In case you are confident, set up and run an automated script to save time and effort.
A DevOps pipeline diagram generator will help you visualize workflow along with the best tools and technology solutions suggestions to accommodate the entire application development and operation process.
It will also allow the testing of various optimization strategies without worrying about unwanted consequences eliminating much of the trial and error associated with it. This will help consider different options virtually without actual implementation. Moreover, since this will be online, you can easily communicate the idea to the team with its sharing feature. Communication and collaboration will automatically come in handy with this tool in place. You can easily send the CI/CD flow diagram across and receive feedback, thus avoiding the need for a meeting in person and saving time.
The tool offers intelligence and analysis features to create an effective DevOps pipeline. It provides an ability to make the most out of it, highlighting the right tools to connect the stages well.
The best part is we have easy-to-use tools to create a DevOps pipeline.
All you have to do is select the tool, visualize your pipeline and generate a customized diagram. Further, you can download, print, and share your DevOps pipeline. The best DevOps Pipeline Generator Tool is Digital.ai Release, simply add in your basic information, and you are good to go. Another option can be the Modern Requirements4DevOps Diagram which is built into Microsoft Azure DevOps, this can help create an Azure DevOps pipeline diagram. Interested in becoming certified in DevOps and wondering where to go? Consider to upskill yourself. fication course to upskill yourself.
DevOps pipeline is the heart and soul of DevOps and delivers a range of benefits as below:
A good CI/CD map will automate builds, testing, and deployment to save time and effort. Also, it is a continuous process, so there is always a scope to include ongoing feedback and maintaining the codebase with continuous testing.
The delivery of any project is a combined effort, and since the development, testing, and operations teams coexist, they must work in collaboration to achieve a common goal. This will not only help deliver an efficient product but will also extend a chance for cross-training, and employees can elevate their technical expertise.
The teams from development, testing, operations, and delivery will be working together, allowing them to better understand customer expectations and cultivate new ideas which will help add value to the organization. Of course, since the entire chain will be automated, the whole delivery process will speed up with decreased monitoring time and quick fixes resulting in a better-quality product.
With no security in place, the DevOps process will be futile. This is where DevSecOps comes into the picture, extending DevOps core components by taking care of security breaches and non-compliance activities which will ultimately help reduce security costs. Adopting the DevOps pipeline will improve environment stability with features like rollback, better code quality, and increased productivity.
There is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to creating a DevOps pipeline map since each organization has its own need. DevOps has enormous technical and business benefits. To summarize, a solid DevOps strategy will surely redefine how your business operates.
If you have not yet incorporated DevOps in your organizations, now is the time, as its advantages are too many to ignore. We need to create a repeatable system that uses automation and enables continuous improvement so we can deliver higher-quality products faster.
Fundamentally, there are two types of pipelines, viz. Continuous Integration (CI) and Continuous Delivery/Deployment (CD). This can be further expanded to Continuous Testing and Continuous Operations.
A typical CI/CD pipeline example will have the following stages:
Automation Testing is at the crux of any CI/CD pipeline. Since the whole idea of CI/CD revolves around "build fast, test fast, fail fast." To deliver feedback early, tests should be run at the fastest pace possible. Detecting bugs early is thus possible.
| Name | Date | Fee | Know more |
|---|
