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WORKSHOP

The Pipeline game

Szilard Szell


Creating a Continuous Delivery (CD) pipeline is a key development in an organization’s transformation to DevOps. A CD Pipeline covers all the activities needed to transform a code change made by a developer into updated software bringing value to users. Steps in the pipeline include building a new version of the software as well as testing and deploying it. Exactly what kinds of build, test and deployment steps will depend on many factors and there is no ‘one perfect pipeline’ which will suit all situations.

Emily Bache created the card game ‘Pipeline’ as a quick and fun way to explore alternatives for a CD pipeline without actually building anything. The goal of the game is to design a pipeline for a given scenario and optimize the deployment lead time. You work in a small group and get to discuss what steps are needed and which order you want to do them in. You will run into design tradeoff decisions and may discover people have different risk tolerances. If you play the game a second time with a different scenario, or compare notes with another group, you can learn more about how different scenarios drive different decisions.

I have been running Emily’s pipeline game on many conferences and meetups, either the original version, or extended with the Test Sphere. In 90 minutes I would run the original version of the game

The pipelinegame is now owned and maintained by Eficode, and a digital free version is also available for team to continue playing after the conference: https://www.eficode.com/blog/pipeline-card-game

  • understanding testing needs guides your Pipeline design
  • designing a pipeline is a collaborative activity
  • To achieve the desired speed you need to make design choices

SPeaker Bio

Szilard is a DevOps Transformation Lead, Test Coach and SAFe 6.0 SPC at Eficode. He has years of experience with DevOps transformation especially in the telco industry, and He also worked as an assessor, trainer, facilitator, and coach in test automation and testing process improvement areas.

Szilard is very involved in the testing community. He runs the Finnish Testing Meetup Group.  He is active in International Software Testing Qualifications Board (ISTQB) working groups and a member of the Hungarian Software Testing Board (HTB).  For many years, Szilard have been working on and supporting conferences like HUSTEF, UCAAT, and EuroSTAR, and Eficode’s very own DEVOPS Conference.

In his personal life, he enjoys kayaking on the sea, playing with LEGO and being tested by his teenage daughter 🙂