deployment-pipeline-design

Deployment Pipeline Design

Architecture patterns for multi-stage CI/CD pipelines with approval gates and deployment strategies.

Purpose

Design robust, secure deployment pipelines that balance speed with safety through proper stage organization and approval workflows.

When to Use

• Design CI/CD architecture
• Implement deployment gates
• Configure multi-environment pipelines
• Establish deployment best practices
• Implement progressive delivery

Pipeline Stages

Standard Pipeline Flow

┌─────────┐   ┌──────┐   ┌─────────┐   ┌────────┐   ┌──────────┐
│  Build  │ → │ Test │ → │ Staging │ → │ Approve│ → │Production│
└─────────┘   └──────┘   └─────────┘   └────────┘   └──────────┘

Detailed Stage Breakdown

1. Source - Code checkout
2. Build - Compile, package, containerize
3. Test - Unit, integration, security scans
4. Staging Deploy - Deploy to staging environment
5. Integration Tests - E2E, smoke tests
6. Approval Gate - Manual approval required
7. Production Deploy - Canary, blue-green, rolling
8. Verification - Health checks, monitoring
9. Rollback - Automated rollback on failure

Approval Gate Patterns

Pattern 1: Manual Approval

# GitHub Actions
production-deploy:
  needs: staging-deploy
  environment:
    name: production
    url: https://app.example.com
  runs-on: ubuntu-latest
  steps:
    - name: Deploy to production
      run: |
        # Deployment commands

Pattern 2: Time-Based Approval

# GitLab CI
deploy:production:
  stage: deploy
  script:
    - deploy.sh production
  environment:
    name: production
  when: delayed
  start_in: 30 minutes
  only:
    - main

Pattern 3: Multi-Approver

# Azure Pipelines
stages:
  - stage: Production
    dependsOn: Staging
    jobs:
      - deployment: Deploy
        environment:
          name: production
          resourceType: Kubernetes
        strategy:
          runOnce:
            preDeploy:
              steps:
                - task: ManualValidation@0
                  inputs:
                    notifyUsers: "[email protected]"
                    instructions: "Review staging metrics before approving"