# CI/CD Pipeline Standards and Policies

## Overview

This document establishes standards and policies for Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) pipelines across all development projects. These standards ensure consistent, reliable, and secure software delivery practices.

## Pipeline Architecture Standards

### Multi-Stage Pipeline Structure

**Required Stages:**
1. **Source Control Integration**
2. **Build and Compile**
3. **Automated Testing**
4. **Security Scanning**
5. **Quality Gates**
6. **Deployment Staging**
7. **Production Deployment**
8. **Post-Deployment Validation**

### Pipeline Configuration

**Branch Strategy:**
- **Main/Master**: Production-ready code only
- **Develop**: Integration branch for features
- **Feature Branches**: Individual feature development
- **Release Branches**: Release preparation and hotfixes

**Trigger Policies:**
```yaml
# Example pipeline triggers
triggers:
  - branch: main
    actions: [build, test, security-scan, deploy-prod]
  - branch: develop
    actions: [build, test, security-scan, deploy-staging]
  - branch: feature/*
    actions: [build, test, security-scan]
  - pull_request: 
    actions: [build, test, security-scan, quality-gate]
```

## Build Standards

### Build Requirements

**Mandatory Build Steps:**
- [ ] Dependency resolution and caching
- [ ] Code compilation (if applicable)
- [ ] Static code analysis
- [ ] Unit test execution
- [ ] Code coverage reporting
- [ ] Artifact generation
- [ ] Build artifact signing

**Build Environment:**
- Containerized build environments (Docker)
- Reproducible builds with locked dependencies
- Build caching for performance optimization
- Parallel execution where possible

### Artifact Management

**Artifact Standards:**
- Semantic versioning (SemVer) for all artifacts
- Immutable artifacts with unique identifiers
- Artifact metadata including build information
- Secure artifact storage with access controls

**Artifact Types:**
- **Application Binaries**: Compiled applications
- **Container Images**: Docker images with security scanning
- **Infrastructure Code**: Terraform modules, CloudFormation templates
- **Documentation**: Generated API docs, user guides

## Testing Standards

### Automated Testing Requirements

**Test Categories (Mandatory):**
- **Unit Tests**: Minimum 80% code coverage
- **Integration Tests**: API and service integration
- **Security Tests**: SAST, DAST, dependency scanning
- **Performance Tests**: Load and stress testing (critical paths)

**Test Execution:**
```yaml
# Example test configuration
testing:
  unit_tests:
    coverage_threshold: 80%
    timeout: 10m
    parallel: true
  integration_tests:
    environment: isolated
    timeout: 30m
    cleanup: always
  security_tests:
    sast: sonarqube
    dast: owasp-zap
    dependencies: snyk
  performance_tests:
    load_test: k6
    threshold: 95th_percentile < 500ms
```

### Quality Gates

**Mandatory Quality Criteria:**
- [ ] All tests pass (zero tolerance for failures)
- [ ] Code coverage meets minimum threshold (80%)
- [ ] No critical or high security vulnerabilities
- [ ] Code quality score meets standards (A rating)
- [ ] Performance benchmarks within acceptable limits

**Quality Gate Enforcement:**
- Automatic pipeline failure on quality gate violations
- Manual override requires senior developer approval
- Quality metrics tracked and reported
- Trend analysis for continuous improvement

## Security Integration

### Security Scanning Requirements

**Static Application Security Testing (SAST):**
- Integrated into build pipeline
- Scans source code for vulnerabilities
- Fails pipeline on critical/high findings
- Results integrated with issue tracking

**Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST):**
- Automated security testing of running applications
- Performed in staging environment
- OWASP Top 10 vulnerability scanning
- API security testing for web services

**Dependency Scanning:**
- Automated scanning of third-party dependencies
- License compliance checking
- Vulnerability database updates
- Automated dependency updates for security patches

### Secrets Management

**Secrets Handling:**
- No secrets in source code or configuration files
- Centralized secrets management (AWS Secrets Manager, HashiCorp Vault)
- Secrets rotation policies
- Audit logging for secrets access

**Environment Variables:**
```yaml
# Example secrets configuration
secrets:
  database_password:
    source: aws-secrets-manager
    key: prod/database/password
  api_key:
    source: vault
    path: secret/api/external-service
```

## Deployment Standards

### Deployment Strategies

**Supported Deployment Patterns:**
- **Blue-Green Deployment**: Zero-downtime deployments
- **Rolling Deployment**: Gradual instance replacement
- **Canary Deployment**: Gradual traffic shifting
- **Feature Flags**: Runtime feature toggling

**Environment Progression:**
1. **Development**: Continuous deployment from feature branches
2. **Staging**: Automated deployment from develop branch
3. **Production**: Controlled deployment with approvals

### Infrastructure as Code (IaC)

**IaC Requirements:**
- All infrastructure defined as code
- Version controlled infrastructure changes
- Automated infrastructure testing
- Infrastructure drift detection

**Supported Tools:**
- **Terraform**: Primary IaC tool
- **AWS CloudFormation**: AWS-specific resources
- **Ansible**: Configuration management
- **Kubernetes Manifests**: Container orchestration

### Deployment Automation

**Deployment Pipeline:**
```yaml
# Example deployment configuration
deployment:
  staging:
    trigger: develop_branch
    strategy: rolling
    approval: automatic
    rollback: automatic_on_failure
  production:
    trigger: main_branch
    strategy: blue_green
    approval: manual_required
    rollback: manual_trigger
    monitoring: enhanced
```

## Monitoring and Observability

### Pipeline Monitoring

**Required Metrics:**
- Build success/failure rates
- Build duration trends
- Test execution times
- Deployment frequency
- Lead time for changes
- Mean time to recovery (MTTR)

**Alerting:**
- Pipeline failure notifications
- Performance degradation alerts
- Security vulnerability alerts
- Deployment status notifications

### Application Monitoring

**Observability Stack:**
- **Logging**: Centralized log aggregation (ELK Stack)
- **Metrics**: Application and infrastructure metrics (Prometheus)
- **Tracing**: Distributed tracing (Jaeger, X-Ray)
- **Alerting**: Intelligent alerting (PagerDuty, Slack)

## Compliance and Governance

### Audit Requirements

**Audit Trail:**
- Complete deployment history
- Change approval records
- Security scan results
- Quality gate decisions
- Rollback events and reasons

**Compliance Standards:**
- SOC 2 Type II compliance
- ISO 27001 security standards
- Industry-specific regulations (GDPR, HIPAA, etc.)
- Internal governance policies

### Access Control

**Pipeline Access:**
- Role-based access control (RBAC)
- Principle of least privilege
- Multi-factor authentication required
- Regular access reviews

**Approval Workflows:**
- Production deployments require approval
- Security exceptions require security team approval
- Infrastructure changes require architect approval
- Emergency deployments have expedited process

## Tool Standards

### Required CI/CD Tools

**Primary Tools:**
- **CI/CD Platform**: Jenkins, GitLab CI, GitHub Actions, or AWS CodePipeline
- **Container Registry**: AWS ECR, Docker Hub, or Harbor
- **Artifact Repository**: Nexus, Artifactory, or AWS CodeArtifact
- **Security Scanning**: SonarQube, Snyk, Checkmarx

**Integration Requirements:**
- Single sign-on (SSO) integration
- API-first tool selection
- Webhook support for notifications
- Metrics and logging integration

### Pipeline as Code

**Configuration Management:**
- Pipeline definitions in version control
- Reusable pipeline templates
- Environment-specific configurations
- Automated pipeline testing

**Example Pipeline Template:**
```yaml
# .github/workflows/ci-cd.yml
name: CI/CD Pipeline
on:
  push:
    branches: [main, develop]
  pull_request:
    branches: [main]

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v3
      - name: Setup Environment
        uses: ./.github/actions/setup
      - name: Build Application
        run: make build
      - name: Run Tests
        run: make test
      - name: Security Scan
        run: make security-scan
      - name: Quality Gate
        run: make quality-gate
      
  deploy:
    needs: build
    if: github.ref == 'refs/heads/main'
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Deploy to Production
        run: make deploy-prod
```

## Performance Standards

### Pipeline Performance

**Performance Targets:**
- Build time: < 10 minutes for standard applications
- Test execution: < 15 minutes for full test suite
- Deployment time: < 5 minutes for standard deployments
- Pipeline feedback: < 30 minutes total

**Optimization Strategies:**
- Parallel job execution
- Build caching and artifact reuse
- Incremental testing strategies
- Optimized container images

### Resource Management

**Resource Allocation:**
- Dedicated build agents for critical projects
- Auto-scaling build infrastructure
- Resource quotas and limits
- Cost optimization monitoring

## Incident Response

### Pipeline Failures

**Failure Response Process:**
1. **Immediate**: Automatic notifications to development team
2. **Investigation**: Root cause analysis within 1 hour
3. **Resolution**: Fix implementation and validation
4. **Post-Mortem**: Incident review and process improvement

**Rollback Procedures:**
- Automated rollback triggers for critical failures
- Manual rollback procedures documented
- Database migration rollback strategies
- Communication protocols during incidents

### Emergency Deployments

**Emergency Process:**
- Expedited approval workflow
- Enhanced monitoring during deployment
- Immediate rollback capability
- Post-deployment validation checklist

## Training and Documentation

### Required Training

**Developer Training:**
- CI/CD pipeline usage and best practices
- Security scanning interpretation
- Deployment procedures and rollback
- Monitoring and alerting systems

**Operations Training:**
- Pipeline administration and maintenance
- Incident response procedures
- Performance optimization techniques
- Security compliance requirements

### Documentation Standards

**Required Documentation:**
- Pipeline architecture diagrams
- Deployment procedures and runbooks
- Troubleshooting guides
- Security and compliance procedures

## Continuous Improvement

### Metrics and KPIs

**Development Metrics:**
- Deployment frequency
- Lead time for changes
- Change failure rate
- Mean time to recovery

**Quality Metrics:**
- Defect escape rate
- Test coverage trends
- Security vulnerability trends
- Performance regression detection

### Process Evolution

**Regular Reviews:**
- Monthly pipeline performance reviews
- Quarterly security assessment
- Annual tool and process evaluation
- Continuous feedback collection and implementation
