A pipeline is a sequence of automated operations that usually represents a part of the software delivery and quality assurance process. It can be seen as a chain of scripts that provide the following additional benefits:
- Operation grouping: Operations are grouped together into stages (also known as gates or quality gates) that introduce a structure into the process and clearly define the rule—if one stage fails, no further stages are executed
- Visibility: All aspects of the process are visualized, which helps in quick failure analysis and promotes team collaboration
- Feedback: Team members learn about problems as soon as they occur, so that they can react quickly