For all its promise of speed and efficiency, Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) often meets more resistance than enthusiasm. The benefits are undeniable: faster releases, more reliable software, and quicker time-to-value for new features. CI/CD offers a rare opportunity to outpace the competition while minimizing errors and reducing wasted effort. Yet many organizations struggle to get it off the ground—not because the technology isn’t sound, but because the cultural and operational shifts required are harder than expected.
But even if you’re leading CI/CD implementation, you still need to bring everyone in the business on board for change to take place and the advantages to be realised. It calls for deep collaboration across teams, clear processes, and a collective commitment to continuous improvement. Without that alignment, even the best tools can fall short.
In this blog, we’ll discuss some of the most common barriers to CI/CD adoption and explain how organizations can overcome them.
Common barriers to CI/CD adoption
When you’re trying something new that requires people to change the way they work, it’s natural to face scepticism. Here are some of the most frequently touted arguments against CI/CD adoption.
- Concerns about infrastructure
At this point in time, it could be true that your business doesn’t have the right infrastructure to support CI/CD. That’s why, before you try out tools and establish best practice, you’ll want to look at your legacy systems and figure out the technical requirements you need to make it work. Having everything mapped out to ensure your infrastructure is CI/CD ready will help ease any concerns that the system won’t be up to scratch. - Challenges accepting change
Resistance to change is a big cultural challenge that holds back many companies from adopting DevOps practices. It’s common to face resistance from other senior peers who are not aligned with your strategy, or from your development team who are happy with their current working practices. By pinpointing what is causing the resistance you can then address these issues to get buy-in from all stakeholders and bring others onboard. - Fears about the lack of expertise
This can be difficult to navigate. If you’re not doing CI/CD already, it’s unlikely you’re going to have a team that’s experienced working that way. But until you start, you’re never going to be able to introduce and build that expertise. By hiring the right specialists, leaning on the expertise you do have, and seeking expert advice from qualified partners, you can build confidence and take CI/CD to the next level. - Concerns about time
There’s no way to get around it—if you’re going to start with CI, some resources and engineers will need to be redirected away from daily tasks to make it happen. And there’s a good chance teams are not going to want to stop shipping features to get implementation moving. But in the long-run automation is worth the short-term frustration. Remind your teams of the benefits and emphasize that they will be able to put more energy into innovative, revenue-generating activities that reflect organisational goals and make a real difference for your customers. - Objections about cost
Tooling, training, and talent are costly, so it’s easy to just see numbers and little in the way of immediate financial returns. It’s important to demonstrate the revenue the business stands to earn from this approach, and to focus on the long-term gains. CI/CD helps you make the most of your resources, ensuring cost-efficiency and allowing your developers to focus on driving innovation while enabling you to make revenue on deployed features far more quickly. Automated tests and builds ensure code is up to standard and that customers won’t have to wait for manual checks to take place first before they can start using your new features.
How to make your case
Even business leaders are accountable—and it won’t necessarily be your decision alone to ensure your CI/CD strategy becomes a reality. The following five focus points will keep you on track when making the case to your colleagues.
- Value – Talk about the value CI/CD brings to teams and the wider organisation. Focus on specific pain points and show how CI/CD can deliver change.
- Increments – You don’t have to change everything all at once. If there’s a team ready to embrace change, start with them, and then use the results to persuade others of the benefits.
- Measurements – Use data to back up your point. If you have teams that have adopted CI/CD successfully, use your own data. If you’re just getting started, use the best estimates available and compare those with your own metrics.
- Strategy – Refer to the bigger picture. What are the business goals that CI/CD can help to achieve? Whether that’s releasing features faster, reducing errors, improving security, retaining good employees, or driving revenue.
- Examples – Look at other organisations that have seen improvements with CI/CD and consult wider research about the benefits.
Persistence pays off
If your business is open to adopt best practices for organizational success, it’s worth pursuing something you believe will have an impact. But it’s important to remember mindset shifts might not happen straight away—keep the conversation going and be patient. The five focus points mentioned above should help you form a strategy.
Another way to build credibility is to bring experts into the conversation. Find your biggest allies across the organisation and use their experience and understanding to help others realise the importance of making the shift to CI/CD.
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