Continuous Deployment
Automatically releasing code changes to production after passing tests.
Definition
Continuous deployment is a development practice where code changes automatically deploy to production after passing automated testing. There's no manual release step—approved code flows continuously from development through testing to live systems.
This practice requires robust automated testing, feature flag systems for managing incomplete features, and monitoring to quickly detect and respond to production issues.
Why It Matters
Continuous deployment dramatically accelerates the feedback loop from code to users. Rather than batching changes into infrequent releases, teams can ship improvements immediately and respond to issues quickly.
The practice requires—and creates—engineering excellence, as teams must build the testing and monitoring infrastructure that makes continuous deployment safe.
Examples in Practice
Continuous deployment allowed the team to ship bug fixes within an hour of discovery rather than waiting for the next weekly release window.
Feature development accelerated when teams could release incremental improvements daily, getting user feedback that shaped subsequent iterations.
The investment in automated testing required for continuous deployment paid dividends in reduced defects and faster issue resolution.