Final answer:
Manual Tasks in software deployment processes can be used for Pipeline Steps, Deployments, and Promotions, serving as gates for review or approval at various stages.
Step-by-step explanation:
The question deals with the various applications of Manual Tasks beyond just their execution in a manual fashion. Manual tasks can serve multiple purposes. They are an integral part of various processes in software development and deployment. While executed manually, they can be used as checkpoints or gates within the workflow to ensure that human intervention, review or approval is provided before proceeding to the next stage.
Looking at the options provided, we can deduce that manual tasks are practiced not only for manual executions but also in more advanced settings like:
- Pipeline Steps: They can be inserted at specific points in continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines to require manual approval or intervention.
- Deployments: Especially in staged deployments, manual tasks might be necessary before promoting a release to production.
- Promotions: As part of a promotion process in software release management, a manual task can serve as a gate before moving code between environments.
Therefore, based on the context given, the most fitting choice is A) Pipeline Steps / Deployment / Manual Tasks.