Continuous Deployment
A practice where every code change that passes automated checks is pushed to production automatically, with no human approval step.
Key Points
- Each validated commit flows straight to production via an automated pipeline.
- Requires strong automated tests, security scans, monitoring, feature flags, and quick rollback.
- Different from continuous delivery, which keeps code ready to deploy but typically needs a manual release decision.
- Works best with small batch sizes and reliable pipelines; track DORA metrics like lead time, deployment frequency, change failure rate, and MTTR.
Example
A product team uses trunk-based development. Every merge triggers unit, integration, and security tests plus policy checks. If all pass, the pipeline deploys the change to production behind a feature flag. The Scrum Master monitors dashboards and error budgets, and the team can instantly roll back or toggle flags if issues appear.
PMP Example Question
A team wants every change that passes automated tests and security checks to be released to production without waiting for a manual approval. Which practice best describes this approach?
- Continuous Integration
- Continuous Deployment
- Continuous Delivery
- Release Management
Correct Answer: B — Continuous deployment
Explanation: Continuous deployment automatically releases each validated change to production, unlike continuous delivery which normally requires a manual approval to release.
