Continuous Delivery and Continuous Deployment are two software development techniques often used together along with Continuous Integration during Agile development. Continuous Delivery makes sure that every build produces a working product. Continuous Deployment adds that the product is immediately released upon creation. These techniques save time and automate the software production process in ways that can eliminate common problems.

Continuous Delivery

With Continuous Delivery, the code of the current project build is always ready for deployment. Continuous Delivery is possible when a project is using Continuous Integration to incrementally add and test small changes. It takes it a step further by running many stages of automated, progressive tests on the code to determine its suitability for the deployment environment. This automated process is the Deployment Pipeline. After reaching the end of the pipeline, the code is ready for deployment.

Continuous Deployment

As the latest build is always deployable due to Continuous Delivery, Continuous Deployment automates the release process and deploys the new code as soon as it is ready. This means that the production version of the build has all the latest changes. Having a change deployed does not necessarily mean that its features will be available to users right away. Additional testing on the deployed version ensures compatibility before users see any changes.

Benefits of Continuous Delivery/Deployment

These continuous methods have several benefits. A team saves time and money by setting up an automated testing and deployment process at the start of the project as opposed to doing it manually several times throughout. These approaches improve product quality by automating common processes, allowing developers to focus on building a better product. Additionally, software releases occur often, allowing for more feedback from users that will lead to further improvements in the product.

Continuous Delivery and Deployment are beneficial practices to use along with Continuous Integration. For an Agile team, these practices simplify the process of getting software ready for deployment and releasing it once testing completes. For more information on software development practices, please contact us.