How to build a modern CI/CD pipeline: DevOps best practices

In this guide, we’ll cut through the jargon to explain what CI/CD really means, explore the core principles behind it, how it works in a DevOps setting and what it takes to get it right, from best practices to common pitfalls.

What is CI/CD?

CI/CD is all about speeding up software delivery through automation and well-defined workflows. The term stands for continuous integration (CI) and continuous delivery or continuous deployment (CD). Together, they form a repeatable, reliable automation pipeline that carries code changes from developers into a production environment in a controlled, safe fashion.

• Continuous integration (CI): Frequently merge new code into a shared code repository, run automated builds and tests and validate that new changes don’t break the main branch. No more last-minute merge difficulties on a Friday afternoon.
• Continuous delivery (CD): Package tested code, deploy it to staging or preproduction automatically and keep it ready for release with minimal manual steps. Your code is always one button-click away from production.
• Continuous deployment (also CD): Deploy every validated change automatically into production without human intervention. This is the final frontier for many, where the pipeline does all the work.

Combined, these form a CI/CD pipeline — a well-defined sequence of stages that code traverses (build → test → release) in an orchestrated, automated fashion.

Continuous integration

Continuous integration is a development practice where developers push small, incremental changes into a shared repository (often Git, GitHub, GitLab, etc.) multiple times per day. Each commit triggers an automated pipeline that builds the code, runs unit tests, integration tests and static analysis and produces an artifact (e.g. a JAR, binary or Docker image). This habit helps you avoid the chaos that comes when large changes stack up and fail to merge cleanly.

Why CI matters

• Early bug detection: Spot problems as soon as they’re introduced rather than weeks later during a stressful QA phase.
• Reduced integration friction: Smaller merges have fewer conflicts — simple as that.
• Higher confidence: The main branch stays in a deployable state. You can always ship what you have.
• Faster cycles: Developers get rapid feedback, which enables shorter delivery loops.

Key practices for CI

• Version control for everything: Application code, infrastructure-as-code (IaC) configuration. The CI pipeline should be reproducible from a git checkout.
• Commit early and often: Smaller changes are easier to merge and test. This is how you avoid massive, complex pull requests.
• Keep builds fast and reliable: Ideally, your builds and tests complete in minutes, not hours. If it’s slow, people will find ways to skip it.
• Use one build artifact across environments: Don’t rebuild code in each stage; promote the same artifact through staging and production.
• Mirrored test environments: Test environments should reflect production as closely as possible to catch environment-specific bugs early.
• Feedback and visibility: Early failure notifications, dashboards, logs and metrics help the team stay aware of pipeline health.
• Fail fast, recover quickly: When a build breaks, fix it immediately. Treat a broken main branch like a production outage.

Continuous delivery and deployment

Continuous delivery

Continuous delivery extends CI by automating the move from code to a deployable artifact in a staging or preproduction environment. Every change is kept in a release-ready state.

Key components:

• Automated deployment pipelines that provision environments, run smoke tests, functional tests or performance validations
• IaC and configuration management tools (Ansible, Terraform, etc.) to ensure reproducible environments
• Rollback mechanisms or deployment strategies (blue/green, canary, feature toggles) that support safe recovery
• Environment consistency so staging closely mirrors production

Benefits of continuous delivery

• Rapid, frequent releases with low risk
• Reduced environment inconsistencies
• Smaller, more manageable changes
• Better alignment with business needs

Continuous deployment

Continuous deployment takes the last manual step out of the delivery process. Any change that passes through automated validation is pushed to production immediately.

Key prerequisites:

• Highly reliable, broad automated testing coverage (continuous testing)
• Real-time monitoring, alerts and rollback or auto-heal capabilities
• Strong observability and metrics
• A culture that accepts occasional failures as learning opportunities

Pros:

• Faster feedback from end users
• Maximizes efficiency by eliminating manual steps
• Encourages small, incremental changes
• Monitoring and feedback

Post-deployment, monitoring tools collect data on the application’s performance, usability and potential errors in the production environment. This feedback is crucial for teams to identify issues early, understand user behavior and plan future improvements.

Anatomy of a CI/CD pipeline

So what does a pipeline look like in the wild? A typical CI/CD pipeline includes:

• Source/trigger: Developers push a commit or open a pull request.
• Build/compile: Code is compiled, dependencies are resolved and a build artifact is created.
• Unit tests and static analysis: Validate logic and code quality.
• Integration and component tests: Verify interaction between components.
• Acceptance and performance tests: Confirm business functionality and scalability.
• Staging deployment: Run final validations in a near-production environment.
• Production deployment: Promote the artifact using blue/green or canary strategies.
• Monitoring and feedback: Collect real-time metrics and alerts for rollback or tuning.

Tools might include GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Jenkins, Azure Pipelines, Docker, Kubernetes, Ansible, Terraform and more. Many of these are open-source or work with cloud-based platforms like AWS.

Key principles of effective CI/CD

Building a high-performing CI/CD pipeline takes much more than automation tools and good intentions. It starts with a handful of core practices that help teams move faster, stay organized and meet real business goals. Here’s what to prioritize.

Automate everything (No, really)

Remove manual handoffs and human error. No one wants to waste time doing the same deployment steps over and over. That’s why scripting your build, tests and rollbacks pays off in both time and peace of mind. Automation increases reliability and reduces time to market. It also enables your team to focus on more strategic tasks rather than repetitive manual work. Tools like GitHub Actions, GitLab CI and Jenkins make it easier to automate complex workflows across environments.

Optimize for fast feedback

If something breaks, your team needs to know fast — before a bug makes it all the way to staging or, worse, production. That’s why quick feedback loops are so invaluable. Developers should be alerted quickly if something breaks, ideally within minutes of a commit. This requires CI/CD tools that support real-time notifications, short build times and efficient test execution pipelines. Metrics dashboards and observability features help maintain visibility and confidence.

Use source control as the single source of truth

Everything, including pipeline definitions, infrastructure scripts and deployment configurations, should live in a version control system like Git. Treat your repositories as the single source of truth for the entire development process. This improves traceability, simplifies rollbacks and makes it easier to manage multiple codebases or microservices architectures.

Commit frequently and in small chunks

Smaller, more frequent commits reduce the risk of merge conflicts and help isolate issues. They also support a continuous delivery model by keeping the codebase in a deployable state. This approach improves code quality and aligns with agile methodologies like scrum and Kanban.

Keep processes consistent

Inconsistent processes lead to environment-specific bugs and failed deployments. Use the same build artifact across all environments, and rely on IaC to provision consistent resources in development, staging and production. When your process is repeatable, it’s easier to spot problems and prevent things like configuration drift.

Build a culture of collaboration

Dev and Ops teams must work closely and share responsibility for application performance. Establishing strong communication, clear roles and shared dashboards encourages teamwork. Cross-functional ownership of the pipeline helps resolve issues faster and creates alignment across the software development lifecycle.

Embrace continuous improvement

A pipeline is never “done.” Monitor pipeline metrics such as failure rates, build duration and recovery time to identify patterns and areas for refinement. Continuous improvement is central to DevOps and helps ensure that your workflows evolve alongside your applications and infrastructure. Encouraging a culture of learning helps teams stay ahead of performance bottlenecks and security vulnerabilities.

DevOps and CI/CD pipelines: How they fit together

Now that we’ve covered the principles of effective CI/CD, it’s important to understand how they support broader DevOps goals. CI/CD isn’t just another toolset; it’s what makes DevOps work in practice.

DevOps is a broad cultural and process shift that combines development and operations. CI/CD provides the technical framework to implement DevOps ideals like rapid iteration, end-to-end monitoring and reduced time-to-value. By eliminating silos and supporting continuous feedback, CI/CD pipelines help DevOps teams deliver software that meets real-time user demands while improving internal efficiency.

Put simply, DevOps is all about breaking down silos and working better together, but without a strong CI/CD pipeline, that philosophy doesn’t get very far. Automation, validation, observability and rollback capabilities allow teams to move quickly without sacrificing quality or security. Together, they enable modern organizations to streamline the release process and scale with confidence.

Best practices for implementing CI/CD

Implementing a reliable CI/CD pipeline begins with securing your pipeline and secrets. Make sure access to your code, infrastructure and credentials is tightly controlled. Use environment isolation to separate dev, staging and production, reducing the risk of accidental deployments and improving test accuracy.

Use pull requests and code reviews to enforce quality checks and collaboration before changes merge into the main branch. Monitor your pipelines for flaky tests and fix them quickly — test instability erodes trust and slows delivery.

Store pipeline definitions as code using YAML or Jenkinsfiles. This makes your workflows repeatable, versioned and easier to maintain.

Maintain consistency in tooling across teams to reduce context switching and promote shared understanding.

Focus on building a strong foundation by prioritizing test reliability and coverage. You don’t have to automate everything right away. Start with what matters most, then scale up over time.

Building a scalable CI/CD and DevOps pipeline

• Modularize pipelines per service or team
• Create shared templates for reuse
• Autoscale build agents in the cloud or Kubernetes
• Use immutable artifacts for containerized applications or serverless functions
• Provision environments using IaC
• Establish strong governance for pipeline changes
• Track metrics like failure rate, MTTR and build time
• Roll out changes gradually using canary or blue/green techniques

Challenges of implementing CI/CD

Let’s be realistic — adopting CI/CD isn’t without its challenges. Cultural resistance is one of the most common blockers, especially when teams are used to traditional workflows or manual processes. Encouraging collaboration between development and operations requires a shift in mindset and sometimes redefined roles.

Legacy systems pose another challenge. Many were not designed with automation in mind, making integration with modern CI/CD tools difficult. Long-running or flaky tests also hinder progress by increasing feedback time and introducing uncertainty into the deployment process.

Security is an ongoing concern. Dependencies can introduce vulnerabilities, and without proper scanning and controls, risks go undetected until it’s too late. Similarly, environment drift between staging and production can cause inconsistencies that derail otherwise successful builds.

Overly complex pipelines or fragmented toolchains can reduce maintainability and performance. Meanwhile, industries with strict compliance and audit requirements must build in controls, traceability and reporting without sacrificing speed.

None of these challenges is a dealbreaker. They just take some planning and patience to work through.

Orchestrate more than code: Tidal by Redwood extends your CI/CD pipeline

CI/CD pipelines do an excellent job of automating the software build, test and deployment process. But what happens outside of that? The most advanced DevOps teams are now extending orchestration beyond the CI/CD toolchain — they automate workflows and systems that support every deployment.

That’s where advanced workload automation comes in.

Tidal by Redwood integrates seamlessly with your existing CI/CD stack, whether you use GitHub, GitLab, Jenkins, Azure DevOps or other tools, and expands orchestration to include:

• End-to-end scheduling for infrastructure tasks, database jobs, cloud provisioning and ERP system updates
• Workflow orchestration across hybrid and multi-cloud environments
• Real-time monitoring, error handling and dependency management for complex DevOps and IT pipelines
• Audit trails and SLA tracking to meet compliance requirements

By combining your CI/CD pipelines with enterprise workload automation, Tidal empowers your DevOps and operations teams to go beyond application code, bridging the gap between software delivery and full-stack operational efficiency.

Streamline and scale your CI/CD workflows. Let us show you how Tidal can bring all your CI/CD workflows (and everything around them) under control. Book a demo today.