In Agile, when deploying software, it is expected to be a fluid process, but processes need to be followed. Deploying software can be complicated but by putting certain processes in place, that complication decreases and becomes a fine-tuned engine. Consider this software deployment best practices checklist:
It starts with your development process
A good development workflow from the start should help you setup your deployment process. If you have a proper development process in place, you will limit errors and issues in deployment. Using a tool such as GitHub will give you version control over your code. You will be able to setup repositories and segment your work into various branches such as development, test and master. Segmenting your work into branches is beneficial since you can use one branch to work on features and bugs while another can be used for testing completed chunks of work.
Having control of your code as you shift it through these various branches will make it easier to spot errors, resolve code conflicts, prevent overwriting issues and revert or rollback if necessary. As a result, by the time your work is completed and merged into master, it is expected to be stable for compiling and deployment.
Automate your steps
When deploying, it’s a good idea to automate as many steps as possible. This will decrease the time it takes to deploy and you will have a recurring process you can come back to, without worrying about forgetting any of the necessary steps needed to deploy. A good way to automate is by writing scripts that can perform the repetitive steps for deployment that you need to do. There are also tools out there such as Jenkins that can help you setup these automated processes.
Build and package your application for deployment once
Before you deploy, you will need to build and package your application for deployment. The most important thing when building and packaging your app is that it is consistent and repetitive and doesn’t change. Essentially, you only want one build package to be deployed across all your environments. This is also necessary if you have your deployment automated.
Always deploy the same way everywhere
You should follow the same steps of deployment on all your environments for development, test, staging and production. You should have your environments setup close to production, especially by the time you get to staging which should be your production-like environment. What you don’t want is for your application to not work on one environment but work on another because of differences in setup and configuration. That is why it is important that your build will be deployed the same on all these servers. It will also help you to do sanity checks to make sure features work as they should before they get into production.
Deploy small chunks of code often
Deploying often in small increments is better than deploying large chunks of new code and features at once. It helps narrow down issues quicker when you deploy in smaller sets and it helps with more accurate testing.
Ready to optimize your software deployment process? Embrace the practice of deploying often in small increments for enhanced efficiency and effectiveness. Contact us today to learn how our team can help you implement a streamlined deployment strategy and maximize the benefits of incremental deployments.