[DL.CD.3] Integrate quality assurance into deployments

Category: FOUNDATIONAL

Integrating quality assurance (QA) processes into continuous delivery pipelines tests that the whole system is ready for release. This differs from previous quality checks in the development lifecycle as these tests validate that the software changes behave as expected when deployed into real-world environments. This provides the ability to test integration with other live systems, check for configuration errors, and test in environments that more closely mirror production.

Incorporate QA stages into your delivery pipeline to automatically conduct required functional, non-functional, security, and data tests after deployments occur. Deployments to environments is the ideal enforcement point for quality assurance, with QA requirements being scoped to the environment being deployed to. If a test fails for one environment, it is a signal that deployment to subsequent environments might carry the same risk. Provide immediate feedback to the development team upon any test failures, so they can rectify issues quickly and maintain the integrity of the deployment pipeline.

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