Overview

The ESP Deployment Pipeline project is an effort to automate the deployment of the ESP application suite (built by ESS) into customer environments using Azure DevOps (AzDO) YAML pipelines and PowerShell scripts.

We are the third team to inherit this work. Team Ludo started it, got the build working in AzDO, and began deployment work before being reassigned. We pick up from there.

Quick Reference - Key Concepts

Concept	What it is	Notes File
ESP	Suite of apps deployed per-customer	ESP Applications
AzDO Pipeline	YAML-based CI/CD pipeline in Azure DevOps	ESP Pipeline
PowerShell Arch	Three-tier script architecture (T1/T2/T3)	ESP Scripts
Manifest	Config file defining a customer environment	ESP Manifest
Dacpac	Packaged SQL Server DB schema deployment	ESP Database
Stages	Validate / Prerequisites / Predeploy / Deploy / Post	ESP Deploy Stages
Known Issues	Pain points, risks, and gaps	ESP Known Issues and Risks
Open Questions	Things still TBC or not yet designed	ESP OQ
Glossary	Terminology reference	ESP Glossary

Context — Why This Project Exists

Few original ESS engineers remain; those left are on paid customer work
Manual deployments are slow, risky, and rely on tribal knowledge
Business goal: all deployments are consistently repeatable with no manual VM work
Initial scope: ROMAC DEV environment only
Future scope: all environments including PROD and ESS's own data centre

Team History

Team	Contribution	Current Status
ESS	Built ESP; wrote original deployment docs	Mostly departed
Team Ludo	Full ESP build in AzDO; started deploy pipeline; dacpac	Reassigned to customer work
Our Team	Inheriting deploy pipeline work	Active

Existing Resources to Review

Handover from Team Ludo: ESP_Pipeline_Handover.docx
Ludo deployment docs: DEPLOY.md (in Repos)
Ludo deploy scripts: deploy folder (in Repos)
ESP Main Build pipeline: AzDO → Pipelines → ESS.esp Main Build
ESP Deploy Pipeline: AzDO → Pipelines → ESS.esp Deploy

File Index

File	Contents
ESS ESP Index	This file — master index
ESP Applications	ESP app suite breakdown
ESP Pipeline	AzDO pipeline structure and concepts
ESP Scripts	Three-tier PowerShell architecture
ESP Manifest	Manifest design and purpose
ESP Database	Database, dacpac, and SQL concerns
ESP Deploy Stages	Stages of deployment — detail per stage
ESP Known Issues and Risks	Known issues and risks
ESP OQ	TBC items and open design questions
ESP Glossary	Glossary of all technical terms

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