Something I’ve learned with experience is that the sooner a desired feature gets into production, the sooner it starts earning you value across the board. User feedback is a very important aspect in the development of any large-scale system and the faster your system can change when prompted by feedback, the more easy it can be to keep both your project owners and more importantly, your users, happy. Some veteran developers have found that the lengthier the time between an error being introduced into a system and the point at which it’s discovered, the more difficult and potentially expensive the error can be to fix.

The types of errors that this covers are slightly more severe than spelling mistakes on a front-end, but a mistake on the back-end can potentially bring your complete system to a halt which is one reason it is important to use both unit testing and where available code reviews prior to making a release. If you see a mistake in your code right after you’ve made it, the cost of fixing it could be zero. If however your bug gets deployed to a production system but doesn’t get noticed for some time, the actual cost of locating the error and fixing it can be terribly long.

Whilst not every company can afford to have their own Q&A or testing teams, I think it’s every coder’s responsibility to self-review before checking in any code that can make it to a live system. Project owners can help facilitate the time for such things by informing their development teams about deadlines in advance and time permitting, by assisting in the testing process. With a good synergy in place between all teams involved and a good head on your shoulders, I think CD could be of benefit to many of us.

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