When using CI, development teams write code. After a code review, this gets integrated into a VCS, from where it is built and tested automatically. This normally happens multiple times a day. Thus, a development team can detect problems and bugs quickly, and fix them as early as possible, enabling what is commonly called fail fast.

CD is a natural extension of CI since it assures that every application modification, after being built and tested, is releasable. Development, testing, staging, and production systems are automatically upgraded through CD.

A pipeline defines a complete development and release workflow. It contains all of the steps required for conception, development, quality assurance, and testing, until delivery of the final product. It includes CI and CD processes for building high-quality applications in an industrialized way.

There are various technologies and tools to help you implement an efficient, productive, fully automated, and industrialized software development process based on CI and CD. We are going to use Microsoft Azure DevOps in the following examples: