The Development of a Simulation Model for Assessing the CI/CD Pipeline Quality in the Development of Information Systems Based on a Multi-Agent Approach

Engineering School of Information Technologies, Telecommunications and Control Systems, Ural Federal University, Ekaterinburg, Russia

^* Corresponding author: medvedev.denis@urfu.ru

Abstract

The need for the development of fast and efficient software requires the automation during the build, test and release stages. Thus, a methodology of the continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) emerges which using a continuous integration server which makes easier automatical build, test, and package of the new feature settings. Poor understanding and execution of CI/CD operations can slow down and even stop the pace of a software project. Many bottlenecks in the CI/CD pipeline can arise from misconfiguration, in other words, an inadequate level of automation, inappropriate agent characteristics, and a suboptimal queuing strategy. On the other hand, the finding a way to analyze and improve the settings of the CI/CD pipeline brings great management and economic benefits, since an optimal configuration ultimately implies high efficiency. In this regard, this study attempts to develop a simulation model that will provide a testing environment for a variety of factors that affect CI/ CD performance. The present study, therefore, aims to provide a pipeline simulation model based on the logic of a queuing system, which is based on a multi-agent approach and an experimental environment that allows you to test different settings and scenarios.