DevOps Dictionary

Continuous Delivery is a software delivery practice where every code change is automatically built, tested, and packaged so it stays in a deployable, release-ready state. It addresses the risk and delay of infrequent, manual releases by using a deployment pipeline, an automated sequence of checks that validates changes early and consistently, such as unit and integration tests, security scanning, and producing a versioned artifact that can be deployed. With Continuous Delivery, teams can release small updates on demand with predictable quality and faster rollback or recovery when issues appear; without it, releases often become large, manually verified events with higher failure rates and longer lead times. This gap exists because automation turns release readiness into a continuous, repeatable process instead of a last-minute coordination effort.