CI/CD Implementation for CMS Teams
Your CMS team deserves better than manual deployments. Copying files via FTP, running database updates by hand, and hoping nothing breaks on production wastes time and creates unnecessary stress. Modern CI/CD pipelines automate testing, deployment, and monitoring - transforming how teams ship Drupal, WordPress, and headless CMS projects. Drawing on years implementing deployment automation for enterprise CMS platforms, we build pipelines that make shipping code boring in the best possible way.
Faster Deployments
Reduce deployment time from hours to minutes with automated build, test, and release pipelines that eliminate manual steps and human error.
Improved Reliability
Consistent, repeatable deployments with automated testing catch issues before production, reducing downtime and emergency fixes.
Team Confidence
Developers and content teams ship changes fearlessly knowing automated tests and rollback procedures protect production environments.
Better Collaboration
Automated pipelines create visibility across teams - everyone sees what's deploying, when, and can track changes through environments.
Compliance & Audit
Automated deployment logs, approval workflows, and environment parity support compliance requirements and provide clear audit trails.
Cost Efficiency
Eliminate manual deployment labor and reduce production incidents, freeing teams to focus on building features instead of fighting fires.
Why CMS teams need CI/CD
Content management systems - especially Drupal and WordPress - often rely on manual deployment processes: SSH into servers, run composer updates, import configuration, clear caches, and cross fingers. This approach worked when teams deployed monthly. It breaks down when organizations need to ship daily or respond quickly to issues.
Manual deployments create predictable problems: configuration drift between environments, forgotten deployment steps, untested code reaching production, and team members who become deployment gatekeepers because they're the only ones who remember the process. These issues compound as teams grow and release frequency increases.
Automated CI/CD pipelines solve these problems by codifying deployment knowledge into repeatable workflows. Every code push triggers automated testing. Passing builds deploy automatically to staging environments. Production deployments happen on schedule or with simple approvals - no manual steps, no tribal knowledge required, no stress.
Our CI/CD implementation approach
Workflow assessment
Document current deployment processes, identify pain points, and map ideal workflows. We consider team size, release cadence, testing requirements, and compliance needs to design appropriate automation.
Pipeline design
Create automated workflows covering code quality checks, dependency management, automated testing, configuration management, database updates, and deployment to multiple environments with appropriate gates.
Testing integration
Implement automated testing appropriate for CMS projects: PHP unit tests, JavaScript tests, visual regression testing, accessibility checks, and security scanning integrated into deployment pipelines.
Team training
Train developers and operations staff on pipeline operation, troubleshooting, and maintenance. Documentation and runbooks ensure team independence after implementation.
Platform expertise
Drupal deployments
Automated configuration management, database updates, composer dependency management, cache clearing, and config import/export workflows for Drupal 9/10/11 sites.
WordPress pipelines
Composer-based WordPress deployments, plugin/theme updates, database migrations, asset compilation, and multisite deployment automation.
Headless CMS
Automated builds for headless CMS frontends (Next.js, Gatsby, Astro) with cache invalidation, preview environments, and content-triggered deployments.
Common pipeline features
Automated testing
Code quality checks (PHP_CodeSniffer, ESLint), automated tests (PHPUnit, Jest), visual regression testing, accessibility validation, and security scanning run on every commit.
Environment parity
Automated deployment to dev, staging, and production environments with consistent configuration, database sanitization, and environment-specific overrides managed through code.
Rollback procedures
Automated rollback capabilities when deployments fail health checks, including database rollback strategies, asset restoration, and traffic management during incidents.
Monitoring integration
Deployment notifications, performance tracking, error monitoring, and uptime checks integrated with team communication tools (Slack, Microsoft Teams) and incident management systems.
Ready to start your project?
Let's discuss how we can help modernize your web presence and deliver measurable results for your organization.