How can caching and artifacts speed up Change failure rate on GitLab CI?

Caching and artifacts play a significant role in enhancing the performance and reliability of Continuous Integration (CI) pipelines, particularly in environments like GitLab CI. By effectively using these features, teams can reduce the Change Failure Rate (CFR), which is crucial for maintaining product quality and improving deployment efficiency.

When CI pipelines cache dependencies or build artifacts, it significantly shortens the time it takes to run jobs. This accelerated process means that developers can receive feedback on their code faster, allowing them to identify and address issues swiftly. By decreasing the time to validate changes, teams can promote a culture of frequent and safe deployments.

For example, instead of building the same dependencies or artifacts from scratch for every pipeline run, caching allows GitLab CI to reuse previously built resources, thereby speeding up the job execution and minimizing the risk of errors. This not only reduces the likelihood of change failures but also enhances developer productivity.

Additionally, storing artifacts from one job for later use in another can help ensure that the right versions of files are used across various stages of the CI/CD process. This consistency is essential for maintaining the integrity of the deployment process and reducing potential conflicts.