Release pipelines: STOP DOING THIS - Use the Deploy Script Pattern instead
Do your release pipelines look like this? Stop over depending on your deployment tool. You're making life harder for yourself. Use the Deploy Script Pattern. Deployment tools such as Azure DevOps and Github Actions allow us to create release pipelines for our applications quickly. It's a fantastic advantage over manual deployment. However, how most people write release pipelines slows development and reduces maintainability. Over the last ten years, I've seen and written many release pipelines. The most common pattern I've seen is the heavy use of built-in tasks. Built-in tasks let us provide a few values and then run deployment actions without much effort from developers. On the surface, they are an excellent way to get going fast. However, cracks start to show as you progress through the development lifecycle.