Abstract
This thesis investigates the enhancement of software development efficiency through thetemplating and evaluation of Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD)
pipelines. This study introduces a novel approach that benchmarks existing CI/CD
practices and explores the potential efficiencies gained through pipeline templating.
The research adopts a new methodology to assess various CI/CD technologies, including Jenkins, GitLab CI, and GitHub Actions, in a controlled environment simulating real-world software development scenarios. This is achieved by introducing three
microservice projects, which share similarities in certain pipeline steps, but differ in others. The study evaluates these technologies across multiple dimensions such as implementation complexity, configuration complexity and maximum file complexity, offering
a comparative analysis of templated versus standalone CI/CD approaches.
The study develops a set of metrics to systematically measure and compare the effectiveness of different CI/CD implementations, aiming to provide a deeper understanding
of CI/CD dynamics in software project management. Findings suggest that templated
pipelines enhance operational efficiency, but also that there are still many more points
to consider within not only the implemented metrics, but the evaluation approach as
well.
This thesis contributes to the field of software engineering by providing a detailed
evaluation framework that can guide organizations in optimizing their CI/CD processes.
| Date of Award | 2024 |
|---|---|
| Original language | English (American) |
| Supervisor | Marc Kurz (Supervisor) |