Definition
Continuous delivery, often abbreviated as CD, is a software development practice where code changes are automatically built, tested, and prepared for release to production. This approach ensures that software can be released reliably at any time, allowing for faster feedback loops and more frequent updates. In practice, developers commit code to a shared repository, triggering an automated pipeline that validates the changes through various testing stages. This practice is crucial for agile teams aiming to deliver value to users quickly and efficiently, reducing the risk associated with large, infrequent deployments. For instance, a web application team might use continuous delivery to automatically deploy bug fixes and new features to a staging environment after every successful code commit. Continuous delivery differs from continuous deployment, which automatically releases every validated change to production, whereas continuous delivery requires a manual approval step before production deployment. This concept is frequently assessed on cloud security certifications like CCSP and AWS certification exams.