7 Benefits of Continuous Integration in Software Development

The world of software development is a complex and murky one, completely opaque at times to those who are not aware of its inner workings and systems. Trying to build your own platform, for your business or otherwise, is doable, but without professional help, you will not get very far without running into serious obstacles. These obstacles and problems will often have solutions that make your life significantly easier, but you simply will not be aware of them, and continuous integration, or CI, is one of them. In essence, it allows you to continuously integrate (surprise) code into a single shared repository that is also easy to access, basically creating an effective and speedy process of getting whatever your product is out the gate before your competition does, with the help of continuous delivery. In this little text, we’ll review some ways continuous integration benefits software development.

Faster Release Rates

With continuous integration, failures are detected quicker, which means they can be fixed quicker, which means increased release rates, but these are only possible if the code is being developed in an ever-moving system. Finding the right software development solutions is not the easiest thing in the world, but with a nudge in the right direction, it can be much easier. You need to ensure that the code is moving through a release-ready state, with as few breaks in production as possible.

Less Code to Change

One technical benefit of continuous integration is that it lets you integrate small chunks of code at a time. These are easier and simpler to work with than giant pieces of code and have fewer problems that will need to be fixed at a later time. When testing continuously, these code segments can be tested as soon as they get integrated into the repository, letting your devs recognize an issue before too much work has been done. This works especially well when you have large development teams, some of whom work remotely while others work in-house, and communication between team members is complicated to effectively facilitate.

Fault Isolation

Ideally, you want a system that is designed in such a way that when errors occur, the problematic outcomes are concentrated in a small area and do not reach out with digital tendrils infecting and breaking numerous other systems. This is called fault isolation, to limit the scope of issues and reduce the damage that can happen, making your systems easier to maintain and keep oversight over. Continuous integration and delivery make sure that fault isolations can be detected much faster, and then be implemented easier. Sudden breakdowns and other critical problems can be better prevented with the combination of monitoring your system, identifying when the issue occurs, and triggering the fault’s location.

Reduced Backlog

Defects just worm their way into your code sometimes; this is completely normal, and sometimes they are not bad or big enough to immediately address during development. Once the project hits full production and every cylinder is firing, these noncritical bugs may still be menacingly hanging around, and the idea of cleaning up your whole backlog can seem very discouraging. But, when you test smaller chunks of code at once and continuously commit to it, noncritical problems are also more likely to be caught within your digital net and quickly resolved, giving you a tidier backlog once you are done.

Lower Costs

Money may not matter when it comes to fulfillment and true happiness in life, but when you are knee-deep in software development and building something of your own, every dollar does matter. Continuous integration is great if you want to avoid forking over more money than you have. When errors are few, code pieces are smaller, and fixes are quicker, development costs naturally go down too. At first glance, it may seem like making continuous integrations to a code repository would actually be more expensive for you, but generally, CI leads to lower development costs, and when you have fewer errors, you also have developers who spend less time on squashing bugs and more on actually building and perfecting the platform or product. 

Customer Satisfaction

The customer is king, as they say, and the benefits of continuous integration do not only fall into the technical and digital aspects of your business but also into the organizational side. It is those first few moments when a new customer tries out your service or product that are the most crucial and contribute to their make-or-break impressions of you. First impressions are incredibly vital to a business, as customers who have had a negative initial experience are highly unlikely to return. Even if something does not work as it should, if you respond to them fast enough, and be as quick as possible with a fix, they might leave more satisfied, seeing how you handle your customer base and how swiftly you respond to their complaints. They will feel like you can be relied on when it matters, especially in times of crisis.

Simple Maintenance and Updates

Any product tends to work with maintenance and updates over time, especially if it is or should be a great product. But to update your system, you need to bring it offline first, update everything, and then throw the switch back on, so to speak. But this takes some time, sometimes more, sometimes less, and no customer wants to be met with a non-functioning website or the like when they are trying to access your product. Microservices built into the digital architecture of the code work very well when in tandem with continuous integration, making only parts of the system go down when updates and patches need to be rolled out. When major maintenance work needs to be carried out, you should make sure to schedule it during non-peak times to avoid upsetting as many customers as possible.

Software development is often hard work with more bugs and loose ends than you can keep track of, but using tools that simplify the workload and iron out issues can make your life a lot easier.