Automate the Application's Deployment to IT Operating Environments

This chapter explains why an Application’s Deployment should be automated across its IT Operating Environments.

Why Automate Deployment

Manual Deployments are slow, inconsistent, and error-prone, and they become riskier the more environments and Instances an Application has. Automated Deployment applies the same tested steps every time, in every environment, which makes Deployments faster, more reliable, and easier to roll back. It also ensures that Production receives the same package, through the same procedure, that was proven in staging.

Establish Deployment Automation

Automate, to the greatest degree feasible:

• Deploying packaged Releases into each environment and Instance, applying the correct environment-specific configuration.

• Running Deployment verification checks.

• Rolling back automatically, or with a single approved action, when verification fails.

• Promoting a Release from one environment to the next once its exit criteria are met.

• Recording every Deployment, including what was deployed, where, when, by whom or by which automation, and with what result.

Treat manual Deployment as an exception requiring documented justification. Where the Deployment automation is owned by another team, document that dependency explicitly, since the Application’s Release speed and reliability depend on it.

Document and Share the Deployment Automation

Record the automation’s stages, triggers, approvals, verification checks, rollback behavior, and owners in the Release and Deployment section of the Application Documentation, and link to the automation definitions in the Application’s repositories. Record any manual steps that remain, with their justification and procedure.

Best Practice: Automate the Application’s Deployment to IT Operating Environments

It is a best practice to both establish and document the solution for deploying an Application: automate Deployment, verification, rollback, and promotion across all its environments to the greatest degree feasible, record every Deployment, and treat manual Deployment as a justified exception.

Benefits: Automated Deployment makes Releases faster, more frequent, and less risky, because every environment receives the same proven procedure. Automatic records of every Deployment also keep each Instance’s current Release accurate without relying on anyone to update it by hand.

Advance Maturity Deliberately: Crawl, Walk, Run

• Crawl. Deployments follow documented, scripted procedures that are rehearsed in staging.

• Walk. Deployments to all environments are automated, with verification and recorded results; rollback is automated or a single approved action.

• Run. Deployment, verification, promotion, and rollback are fully automated with policy checks built in, and Deployment records automatically update each Instance’s documented Release.

Connections to Related IF4IT Practices and Inventories

The IT Operating Environments Best Practices addresses automating Deployments across the environment pipeline and treating manual Deployment as a governance exception requiring documented justification.