Continuous Integration: Can We Stop for Lunch?

Welcome to Episode 13

This week, we’re stuck in a meeting that never ends because the code keeps deploying… forever. Welcome to the world of Continuous Integration (CI), where breaks are mythical and lunch is just a Slack notification that smells like pizza.

The Main Struggle: The Build Never Sleeps

Meet Kara, our overachieving Solutions Architect. Her calendar was already more fragile than a dev’s ego during a code review, but now, thanks to “embracing DevOps culture”, she’s looped into every build failure like it’s a family group chat.

Her day starts with a broken pipeline alert, followed by a sync about the alert, followed by a war-room to discuss why the previous sync didn’t resolve the alert. And in the background? CI keeps running like a caffeinated hamster on a wheel.

Every attempt to grab lunch is interrupted by Jenkins failing at step 87 of 90. And don’t get her started on that “minor tweak” the devs merged at 12:59. CI/CD? More like Can’t Ingest / Constant Disruption.

TOGAF to the Rescue (Sort of)

TOGAF doesn’t write Jenkins pipelines (thank the architecture gods), but it does help us manage expectations and process boundaries. Enter: the Architecture Governance Framework.

Set clear demarcations between architectural review checkpoints and operational DevOps madness. TOGAF reminds us: Just because you can deploy 400 times a day, doesn’t mean your architects want to be on-call like a pizza place.

Educational Twist: TOGAF & DevOps Harmony

• Architecture Contracts: Define what’s “architecture-worthy” and what can run wild in the land of rapid builds.

• Capability Viewpoints: Use these to show where DevOps supports delivery without hijacking strategic architecture discussions.

• Lifecycle Phases (ADM): Slot CI/CD events into Phase G (Implementation Governance), not Phase B (Vision). Because your Vision should not be “debugging at 2am.”

Humor in Diagrams

Reader Engagement:

Have you ever tried to architect in the middle of a CI meltdown? Tell us your best (or worst) “can’t-eat-lunch” deployment story and we’ll feature it in our next issue!

Next Week’s Tease:

“Agile Misadventures: How not to mix agility with architectural sanity.”

Hint: If your sprint planning feels like speed dating, we need to talk.