Continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines play a critical role in ensuring the seamless delivery of high-quality software. However, even the most well-designed pipelines will encounter issues at some point, with the most common being failing tests. Identifying, understanding, and addressing the reason behind test failures is crucial for ensuring the reliability and efficiency of modern software delivery processes.

In this article, we will explore various CI/CD pipeline test failure scenarios and practical strategies on how to surface and analyze failed tests to streamline the troubleshooting and debugging process. With the insights gained from these failed test scenarios, developers can accelerate the software development lifecycle and ultimately deliver more robust, error-free applications.

What Is a CI/CD Pipeline?

A CI/CD pipeline is a full set of processes for automating and streamlining the delivery of software updates and new features. In modern software development environments, CI/CD pipelines span the entire application lifecycle, from initial coding to deployment, encompassing a series of automated steps that begin with code changes and culminate in the deployment of the application. 

Continuous Integration

Continuous integration (CI) involves automatically integrating code changes into a shared repository, usually multiple times a day. When triggered, continuous integration processes start an automated build and suite of tests, ensuring that the new changes integrate seamlessly with the existing codebase and are free of errors.

Continuous Deployment

Following CI, continuous deployment (CD) automates the delivery of the software to various environments—typically development, test, staging, and production, depending on your organization’s release strategy. CI/CD pipeline automation mechanisms minimize manual intervention during these steps, reducing the risk of human error and accelerating the overall software delivery process. 

With CD, DevOps teams can maintain a rapid and consistent pace of software releases and foster more agile and responsive development lifecycles.

Common CI/CD Pipeline Components

The CI/CD pipeline is a crucial aspect of software delivery and is composed of various components working together.

Source/Version Control

A source/version control system stores code in a centralized repository and allows multiple team members to make ongoing project contributions simultaneously.

Build

A CI/CD pipeline’s build component includes automation tools that allow multiple teams to write code and port it into a shared workflow, with standardized protocols around software quality, code automation, and other features for ensuring build process consistency and repeatability.

Test

The testing component of a CI/CD pipeline is vital for supporting the complex and repetitive but extremely vital activities that bolster quality and security in software’s underlying code. To this end, automated testing frameworks play a major role in validating the correctness and functionality of software code. Unit tests, integration tests, and end-to-end tests are commonly employed to ensure software quality.

Deploy

The final component in a CI/CD pipeline prepares the software for release in production and other environments. This includes retrieving artifacts from repositories and using an automation platform to manage and automate the configuration of infrastructure and deployment environments. 

Modern software teams also employ containerization tools to package up their applications and related dependencies into lightweight, portable containers, as well as orchestration tools for automating the deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications.

What Is CI/CD Testing?

CI/CD testing refers to the automated testing practices implemented throughout the software development lifecycle to ensure the consistent delivery of high-quality applications. As code changes progress through the CI/CD pipeline, various types of automated tests are executed to verify the functionality, performance, and security of the software. These tests include unit tests to validate individual components, integration tests to check interactions between components, and end-to-end tests to assess the complete system’s behavior. 

The goal of CI/CD testing is to detect and address issues early in the development process, provide rapid feedback to developers, and minimize the likelihood of defects reaching production. By automating testing procedures within the CI/CD pipeline, development teams can achieve faster release cycles, enhance code reliability, and ultimately deliver higher-quality software to end users.

Diagnosing Why CI/CD Tests Fail

A myriad of test failures can occur across a CI/CD pipeline, each posing unique challenges to the software development and deployment process. 

Inaccurate Test Reporting

A prevalent issue is inaccurate test reporting, where the test results provided do not accurately reflect the true state of the application. This can happen due to misconfigured tests, inadequate assertion checks, or other factors, leading to a false sense of security and potentially allowing defects to slip through undetected. 

Addressing this challenge requires meticulous review of test cases, regular updates to accommodate changes in the codebase, and continuous validation of test outcomes against the actual application behavior.

Overtaxed Servers

Overtaxed servers and over-utilized networks can also cause test failures as they struggle to handle multiple tests concurrently. As development teams scale their projects, the demand for resources intensifies accordingly. This could lead to increased test execution times, delays in feedback loops, and system failures in insufficiently provisioned testing environments. 

To mitigate this, organizations should invest in scalable infrastructures, implement parallel testing strategies, and consider the efficient allocation of resources within the CI/CD pipeline to ensure optimal performance and responsiveness.

Using the Wrong Tools

Deploying the wrong tools in a testing environment can also cause systemic failures in a CI/CD pipeline. For example, incompatible testing tools and application technologies or requirements can lead to inaccurate results, failed tests, or a mismatch between testing and production environment baselines. Testing tools should therefore be carefully evaluated to ensure they align with the project’s needs and are working as expected.

Fixing Common Build Stage Test Failures

The following are some typical test failure types in the build stage of software development, followed by mitigation strategies to address these common issues:

Compilation Errors

Compilation errors include errors in syntax (i.e., incorrect syntax, typos in the source code) and the failure to include required libraries or dependencies in build configurations. These errors can be reduced by employing comprehensive code reviews for syntax errors and typos.

Integrated development environments (IDEs) and linting tools can help surface code issues early on. Additionally, proper version control mechanisms ensure that your code base is maintained and updated quickly to account for any changes made by your development teams.

Unit Test Failures

These fail states encompass various test case errors (e.g., incorrect assertions or flawed logic in unit tests that cause build failures), incomplete test coverage (e.g., unit tests that fail to cover critical parts of the code), and other common unit test issues. 

Software teams can mitigate these issues by running local tests before pushing changes out to a shared environment. Using CI to automate test execution usually helps in this regard.

Build Configuration Errors

Configuration errors in the build stage may be caused by various factors: incorrect build scripts that hinder code compilation and invalid environment configurations (e.g., inconsistent configurations across software environments), to name a few. 

Build configuration errors can be avoided by regularly reviewing build configurations, documenting build dependencies, and ensuring build compatibility across deployment environments.

Solving Common Test Fails in the Testing Stage

Here are common test failures in the test stage and strategies for preventing them:

Performance Test Failures

These test failures include issues like memory leaks, poor load distribution, and degradation in response time. Regularly performing load testing to simulate real-world conditions can help reduce the occurrence of performance test failures, as well as adjusting code and identifying potential bottlenecks that may result in consistent performance test fails.

Security Test Failures

Security testing is critical for revealing issues like outdated code libraries, exposed and/or poorly managed APIs, insecure coding practices, and more. By regularly conducting security reviews and addressing vulnerabilities promptly, software teams can ship software that is both more performant and safer for end users. Implementing automated security scanning tools in the CI/CD pipeline (e.g., Snyk, SonarQube) can help greatly.

Compatibility/Versioning Failures

Testing code on various browsers, devices, and operating systems may result in inconsistent performance. To mitigate these failures, software developers can employ a range of supported configurations and automated testing tools to solve potential compatibility issues.

Solving Common Test Fails in the Deployment Stage

Encountering test failures during the deployment stage is also not uncommon. Common failures include:

Resource Exhaustion

In some cases, application deployments end up consuming excessive resources, resulting in performance degradation or even total failure. Resource exhaustion issues are commonly caused by inefficiently written code and code misconfigurations, so optimizing or refactoring code for performance and pre-deployment load testing can help to identify these types of potential issues.

Failure of Rolling Deployments

Rolling deployments (i.e., updating instances one at a time) can lead to inconsistencies or errors in running applications. To resolve these issues, implement robust health checks and monitor the application’s health throughout the deployment process for timely response and remediation.

By incorporating these insights for handling CI/CD pipeline test fails, software teams are better positioned to streamline their debugging efforts, accelerate software delivery, and cultivate a culture of continuous improvement, ultimately yielding more robust, high-quality software applications delivered in a resilient and secure manner. 

To support your software development efforts, A&I offers a range of Broadcom solutions to test and deploy software in any scenario or environment, from in-house development shops to fully realized CI/CD pipelines supporting mission-critical SaaS applications.

Book a demo or talk to an A&I team member to learn more today.