Practical use of the CI/CD pipeline

Once an automated CI/CD pipeline is in place for Salesforce development, new disciplines and practices can emerge to take full advantage of its capabilities. The most immediate benefit is the real-time visibility that the pipeline dashboard provides into the health of the entire process. Build statuses, test results, deployment records, and other key indicators can be monitored to quickly identify pipeline failures and rapidly troubleshoot any issues before they become major problems.

Increased visibility facilitates practices such as incorporating quality gates into the process. Required standards such as code coverage thresholds can be enforced, ensuring quality before releases. With CI, developers gain the confidence to merge code frequently into a shared mainline repository, promoting effective trunk-based development.

Another major advantage is how the pipeline tightens and shortens feedback loops. Automated testing and rapid build/deploy...