Got your CI/CD/DX tangled? This is your introduction to DevOps terms and acronyms

In the world of two and three-letter acronyms, it’s easy to get lost.

Here are the DevOps terms and acronyms all technology leaders should know:

Continuous Integration (CI) is the concept of testing code changes automatically, and merging passed changes in a common master branch. This cycle should be completed at least daily by every developer. Continuous Integration is a prerequisite for any Continuous Delivery pipeline.

Continuous Delivery (CD) is a software delivery methodology where changes are shipped to production frequently and in small increments. On a technical level, Continuous Delivery is enabled by the confidence of knowing that your common code branch (usually known as the ‘main’ or ‘master’ branch) could be deployed to production at any given point in time. It implies you have a way of automatically testing and rejecting changes that would break your production environment.

Continuous Deployment (also often CD, less helpfully) is taking Continuous Delivery a step further, meaning every valid code change will be deployed to production automatically. The key here is the word valid - if the automated testing or CI pipeline detects potential problems, the code change is rejected and reported to the development team.

Developer Experience (DX) is often considered a part of DevOps, and it describes the experience developers have while working on your product. A great Developer Experience often emphasises automation - you wouldn’t want your smartest minds spending time doing repetitive tasks.

So what is DevOps, then?

For us at Releaseworks, DevOps is first and foremost a way of working. We think that an organisation that is mature in DevOps shares the success of their products and platforms across functional teams.

For more DevOps terms and acronyms, see: https://tutorials.releaseworksacademy.com/learn/devops-terms