Which Type of Delivery Pipeline Does Your Business Rely On?
A delivery pipeline is the thing that takes freshly written software out of the hands of a developer, and turns it into running services, potentially accessible to the public. Most (probably all) Software-as-a-Service products use a delivery pipeline.
There’s a spectrum of technologies and approaches that are used by companies, but there are two extremes.
I was explaining this to a friend the other day with an analogy.
First consider a mechanical watch.
The movement in mechanical watches are often engineering masterpieces! Craftsmen have developed this machine that has so many intricately connected moving components. The principles to get this just right have been learned over generations.
Just by looking at it, you can see its value… imagine how many hours went into to creating such an ornate mechanism!
All of that beauty comes at a price though: costs tend to rise exponentially with increased reliability and number of features. Think about how each of those components is cast, cleaned, polished, tuned, and assembled. There’s a lot of work involved in creating each watch. The sheer number of moving pieces cause risk: imagine what happens if a piece of dirt finds its way in there, or one of those screws became loose?
On the other hand (no pun intended), a digital watch is simple. Usually it contains a controller, a display, a battery and a couple of buttons. Maybe a quartz crystal. On a production line, it can be manufactured from its commodity components in seconds.
Over time, the controller and display in these products have become more complex, but with some exceptions, the number of components doesn’t really change.
Because the number of components to assemble doesn’t change, increasing sophistication over time doesn’t affect manufacturing costs. As components become more sophisticated, more features can be packaged for the same price. Some will even play you a tune.
Okay, So How Does That Relate to a Delivery Pipeline Again?
The question is simple. Is your pipeline a mechanical watch, or a digital watch?
One is produced by craftsmen, has many intricate moving pieces but costs a fortune to build and requires maintenance. It’s also hard to change. The other is cheap, efficient, reliable, and easy to dispose of when something better comes along.
Additionally, it’s likely that you won’t have craftsmen who are building the pipeline, but engineers who are learning and evolving as they go.
Which one of these two would you stake your business on?
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