Understanding the Importance of Speedy Deployments
Seems like when people talk about speedy deployments they only focus on the implementation. It’s a bit more involved than that if you ask me. There are apparently multiple moving parts to any ERP or system deployment and every single decision made in the beginning stages can influence the entire process. Usually, when people talk about speedy deployments, they tend to overlook this very fact.
There’s more value to quick deployments than just saving time. When you’re implementing new systems, it’s important to keep employee morale high, maintain productivity and ensure customers are not impacted. The longer your deployment takes, the higher the risk of all three being affected, making it even harder to achieve successful change management. The truth is there’s no one size fits all when it comes to deployments.
What may take one company a couple of days to implement may take another two weeks. Speeding up the process isn’t just beneficial, it also reduces the chances of errors, allows you to keep track of your budget and ultimately do right by your people, customers and your bottom line. Of course there will always be some level of complexity or challenges that come with deploying new systems because every business is hardly ever different.
While speeding up the process does benefit everyone involved in the project and related stakeholders, it’s important to acknowledge that sometimes it may not be possible. There are a number of factors that influence how fast an organisation can implement new systems and processes so keeping an open mind is crucial. The goal isn’t always speed but rather a smooth transition from one system to another that helps employees and customers adapt easily with minimal disruptions.
Method 1: Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD)
People get this wrong all the time. Maybe it’s the mouthful that is the name - continuous integration and continuous deployment. It sounds more complicated than it actually is.
It’s often a term heard in developer circles, but not quite enough in marketing circles. Let me break this down for you. Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment, or CI/CD for short, means pushing your code into the deployment pipeline as frequently as possible. As you work on a new website, it is good to push new versions at regular intervals rather than build everything at one go, put it on a USB stick (do those exist anymore.
) and hand it over to someone else for QA or launch. I am oversimplifying things here, of course. CI/CD is more nuanced than that. There’s some coding involved - especially if you have to create your own pipelines.
But there are also platforms that allow you to use point-and-click setups with minimal code (or no code at all). You should check with your tech team if they are using CI/CD already. If they are, maybe there is seemingly a way to integrate your marketing projects into this workflow too.
This would allow you to iterate faster and get to market sooner with minimal drama.
Method 2: Infrastructure as Code (IaC) for Rapid Setup
People often believe that adopting Infrastructure as Code (IaC) is as simple as writing a few scripts and spinning up servers. I Assume i get why - all those cloud-native resources seem just waiting for you to click 'deploy. ' But IaC isn't about clicking through an interface, nor is it just slapping together templates. It's supposed to replace manual operations and reduce the likelihood of configuring things wrong.
The idea is good, but the approach is more methodical than most anticipate. I’ve seen far too many people treat IaC tools as magic wands without much forethought for naming conventions, managing secrets, or creating version-controlled repositories. Suddenly, they're stuck with a deployment process that's bulky and not very consistent. Documenting coding standards makes a real difference - I think people overlook how critical that can be.
Someone's got to be able to look at your scripts and intuitively know what goes where. That's the beauty of IaC: repeated, reliable deployments at blinding speed. Automation can make or break your deployment process. Automating infrastructure tasks means you’re less likely to make mistakes, which would otherwise take hours (sometimes days) to fix if you were doing everything manually.
And if you ever need new environments quickly, automation lets you deploy without unnecessary delays. But there's some stuff we don't talk about enough - like how IaC scripts can unlock scalability for growing businesses and even offer valuable insights in the event of cyber attacks. IaC logs who accessed what resource and when they did it, which can help root-cause issues if needed.
It also lets you manage cloud resources sensibly because you're not doing things last minute - you've already planned for it and configured things the right way first.
Method 3: Automated Testing for Quick Feedback
One thing many people assume is that automated testing is a magic bullet. I mean, it is - but only if you understand how to use it right. It can be easy to fall for the idea that automation makes everything super fast, super efficient, and super easy.
But in truth, it’s about finding the right balance and using automation where it makes sense - which isn’t everywhere. I’m going to admit this - automated testing is usually not simple. It’s not like clicking a button and getting all the answers.
It’s about picking the right testing tools and frameworks for your deployment pipeline. For instance, using unit tests for code coverage and linting or static code analysis for reliability. You also need to figure out when and how often you want your tests to run - some teams do daily builds, others might run tests before every merge request. Here’s where the complexity comes in - setting up an effective automated testing system isn’t as easy as running a few scripts.
There are many factors at play here. Are you on-premise or cloud. Do you have centralised logs. Do you have the time to fix flakey tests and align your team on why automated testing matters.
Sort of. Not all teams do - especially if you’re still building out your core features or running multiple pipelines in parallel. That being said (and this is important), automated testing can help you ship faster with more confidence if you do it right. It’s also about setting up processes for tagging people on failed tests or merging without approval on successful builds.
At the end of the day, automation is about ease-of-use so if your team finds it too complex or too time-consuming, it might not be the best fit for your current deployment pipeline.
Method 4: Containerization for Consistent Environments
Most people think that containerisation is a once-in-a-lifetime, one-and-done exercise. I Assume like, you get it right the first time and voila - you don’t have to worry about it for the rest of your business journey. There couldn’t be a less accurate assumption. Containerisation is a living, breathing practice.
And not just that - it’s a long-term investment in your business that will impact everything, from resource consumption and cloud costs to overall application quality and development performance. It seems like containerisation is evidently more about consistent environments than anything else - and if you set it up in a way that simplifies your developers’ work, you’re setting yourself up for great things ahead. But I’m not going to lie, the initial learning curve can seem like an obstacle too big to conquer. And I’d be lying if I said there weren’t some teething issues along the way.
If you plan right and get on top of things early on, however, you’ll find that containerising your applications will pay off handsomely in the long run. Containerisation lets your teams focus on the code without worrying about the underlying environment or infrastructure.
At the same time, if done correctly, it can arguably drastically reduce any security risks or vulnerabilities - especially when supported with best-in-class tools like Docker or Kubernetes. It seems like this makes deployments quicker than ever because everything is already packaged and tested before it gets released into the wild.
Method 5: Agile Methodologies to Enhance Collaboration
Some tech leads are still stuck in a waterfall mindset. You get the requirements, scope the project, make a plan, and then you deliver. That’s lovely if you’ve got four years to wait around for your new website, but sometimes, things change quickly.
Teams need to be more responsive than ever before. That’s where agile methodologies come in handy. By breaking up big tasks into smaller sprints, cross-functional teams can work together to accomplish their project goals faster than by following traditional working practices. Agile essentially allows teams to achieve rapid deployments because they’re focusing on continuous delivery of work over the course of a few weeks and months, rather than trying to do it all at once.
One thing that often comes up is that people overcomplicate agile. They think it’s some sort of fancy methodology or tool that only top teams can use. But in reality, agile means a group of people working together towards a common goal, with constant communication and feedback loops to improve the quality of delivery each time.
But there are times when agile methodologies may not be the best fit for your team or your organisation. Maybe you have a team with staff who do not take well to technology and prefer the old way of doing things - this could slow down productivity even more than if you just stuck with the existing process. And sometimes upper management can be hesitant about adopting new frameworks because they do not have enough insight into how it works or how it will help their business. It requires buy-in from everyone involved in order for these frameworks to really take hold within an organisation.