From Commit to Production: A Practical CI/CD Pipeline

A good CI/CD pipeline is invisible. It just works — every commit flows through build, test, and deploy without drama.

The Stages

1. Build
2. Unit Tests
3. Integration Tests
4. Docker Build
5. Deploy to Staging
6. Smoke Tests
7. Manual Approval
8. Deploy to Production

Containers eliminate "it works on my machine" problems. Every stage of the pipeline runs in the same environment.

Tests should run in order of speed. Unit tests first, integration tests later. If a build breaks, you know in minutes, not hours.

Rule: If a pipeline takes more than 10 minutes, developers will start skipping it. Speed is a feature.

The pipeline is the backbone of modern delivery. Invest in it, and every deploy becomes a non-event.