We’ve been talking about the need for a common “language” for reporting and observing CI/CD pipelines for years, and finally, we see the first “words” of this language entering the “dictionary” of observability – the OpenTelemetry open specification. With the recent release of OpenTelemetry’s Semantic Conventions, v1.27.0, you can find designated attributes for reporting CI/CD pipelines.
This is the result of the hard work of the CI/CD Observability Special Interest Group (SIG) within OpenTelemetry. As we accomplish the core milestone for the first phase, we thought it’d be a good time to share it with the world.
CI/CD observability is essential for ensuring that software is released to production efficiently and reliably. Well-functioning CI/CD pipelines directly impact business outcomes by shortening Lead Time for Changes DORA metric, and enabling fast identification and resolution of broken or flaky processes. By integrating observability into CI/CD workflows, teams can monitor the health and performance of their pipelines in real-time, gaining insights into bottlenecks and areas that require improvement.
Leveraging the same well-established tools used for monitoring production environments, organizations can extend their observability capabilities to include the release cycle, fostering a holistic approach to software delivery. Whether open source or proprietary tools, there’s no need to reinvent the wheel when choosing the observability toolchain for CI/CD pipelines.