Certified Pega System Architect (CSA) Practice Exam

Frequent and predictable updates are a fundamental characteristic of Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) practices. CI/CD aims to streamline the software development process, allowing teams to introduce new features, bug fixes, and improvements to applications on a regular basis. This regularity not only helps to ensure that the latest changes are promptly available to users but also contributes significantly to the overall reliability of the application.

By frequently deploying updates, teams can address issues more proactively and continuously improve software quality. This predictable cadence of updates enables development teams to monitor the impact of changes in real-time, which can facilitate rapid feedback loops and foster an environment of agility and innovation.

In contrast, the other options highlight scenarios that are typically avoided in a CI/CD framework. Rare and unpredictable updates can lead to a buildup of changes which may increase the risk of deployment failures. Scheduling updates yearly creates substantial delays between iterations, which is contrary to the iterative nature of CI/CD. Lastly, requiring extensive downtime is a challenge that CI/CD practices aim to mitigate by employing techniques such as blue-green deployments or rolling updates to ensure application availability during updates.