You might have heard that Continuous Delivery is the new agile. Right now, we are moving towards Continuous Delivery/Development. However, is there any difference between the two? In this article, we will be exploring more about the two ways of development, i.e., agile and continuous. Do they connect? And most importantly, is a continuous Agile Development the future? Let’s explore more about them.
What is Agile Developement Methodology?
The agile methodology is introduced in 2001 which change how modern software development takes place. It should be noted that it is the first methodology even to enable developers to develop faster, better and positively meet requirements. The general approach is to break the more significant problem into smaller ones and then solve them one by one.
Another essential component of the agile methodology is the continuous feedback which is incorporated into the development cycle.
Continuous integration: A path forward from agile methodology
What’s started by agile methodology is now carried by continuous integration. This incremental and iterative development ensured that the code could be improved in a continuous manner which is what agile methodology is all about.
Continuous integration is a practice of checking code and testing it for performance. The code is continuously pushed into the trunk multiple times throughout the day.
What’s the future holds?
The whole process of agile methodology and continuous integration have given rise to a more efficient way of handling projects. Modern enterprise needs tools and techniques to make it possible. When software development started, the waterfall model was used. It was seen as the best possible way to build products. But, with time, requirements and methodology changed. Now, it is time for collaboration and communication which ensure that the business can maintain competition in the market.
The True Agile Methodology: The Continuous Delivery
Now, enter the era of “Continuous Delivery.” It is a one-step forward to the whole enterprise software development practices. It improves efficiency and enables startups to reach the market faster than the competition. An agile business environment where time is money, continuous development fits well.
So, what does it bring to the table?
It simplifies the whole process of build-test-deploy and brings the whole process time from months to just minutes. That’s incredible as it allows the business to make changes more frequently. They also find it easy to roll out new features and even fix bugs in a matter of minutes.
What is Continuous Delivery?
Continuous Delivery is a software development methodology by which developers release solution in less time compared to other agile methodologies. It is built upon the previous agile methodologies such as DevOps, CI, and Agile.
To reach faster execution, integration and other aspects of the Continuous Delivery are automated. Other key aspects of the Continuous Delivery include automation, parallelize jobs, visibility, and deployment.
Continuous Delivery(CD) is more than just shortening the cycle
Even though we have emphasized how Continuous Delivery shortens the development cycle, it is more than that. It is about making software development a continuous process rather than a one-time process. This means that software is not about deploying it once and then forget about it. It is making solutions ready for release all-the-time.
Agile vs. Continuous
Agile methodology has shown its age. However, we cannot ignore what it offered to the development community. It has a separate identity, and you will find development teams figuring out which one to use.
To get a basic understanding, let’s go through the similarities and differences below.
Unfinished release: The agile methodology is all about working on a product that needs to be finished before release. The same thing is not true in case of the continuous development. This means unfinished software can be released to the audience. However, it should have basic functionality; otherwise, it will be useless for the users.
The idea here is to deploy code and keep it work in progress. There is a technique known as feature toggles that let developers or CD team meet requirements even without completely finishing the whole solution. With each iteration, new features are added which it makes continuous.
Testing: Continuous development has a more rigorous testing deployment compared to agile. Whenever a CD is automated, it is ensured that the continuous integration is created so that it emulates the production level. By having tighter conditions, the CD team will be able to provide that each commit is done right with a focus on efficiency.
Unlike previous agile methodology, the team had to use an embedded application server and then use build tools such as Maven or Ant. They did the work just fine. However, they didn’t reflect if they will work fine on production or not. CD resolved the problem and gave developers the right means to ensure that their solution works perfectly in production level
Is continuous development the future?
Yes. It is. CD holds the key and improves drastically over the agile development as it has many benefits. Let’s list them below.
1. Improves deployment success rate by correctly accessing the issues
2. Minimize risk or loss by enabling the organization to release whenever they want.
3. Connects well with everyone who is working on the product. It can be operations, QA or testers. Everyone needs to work together to ensure that the automation is done correctly and make the most out of the continuous deployment. This also enables the use of working practices.
4. Improvement is guaranteed with regular release.
5. Quality of the software is drastically improved as it is now easy to push changes to the production.
Conclusion
In today’s article, we went through agile development and its growth. Then, we discussed how continuous integration further improved it. Lastly, we came to discuss continuous development. We also went forward and discussed the difference between continuous development and agile methodology. In the end, it is easy to say that the CD is better than agile. So, what do you think about it? Comment below and let us know.
