What ensures that every change in GitLab is releasable?

A structured deployment pipeline is essential for ensuring that every change in GitLab is releasable because it meticulously orchestrates the process of taking code changes from development all the way to production. This pipeline typically includes stages such as build, testing, and deployment, allowing teams to automate and standardize their processes. It ensures that all changes pass through essential quality checks and integration tests before being promoted to production environments.

This systematic approach facilitates the quick identification of issues, enhances code quality, and ensures that only code that meets predefined acceptance criteria is shipped, thereby guaranteeing that every change is tested, validated, and releasable. A well-defined pipeline allows for consistent and reliable releases, ultimately supporting continuous delivery practices.

While frequent code reviews, continuous testing, and regular team meetings are important practices in software development and project management, they do not, by themselves, ensure that every change is automatically releasable. Code reviews enhance quality by catching issues early, continuous testing provides feedback on code performance, and regular meetings contribute to team coordination, but it's the structured deployment pipeline that directly defines the path and criteria for releasing changes into production.