Definition
The software is continuously integrated and ready to be published in delivery practices.
In detail
Continuous Delivery (CD) is a software engineering practice that enables software to be continuously integrated and ready for release at any time. It addresses the problems of long release cycles and high integration risk. Unlike continuous integration, CD emphasizes automated deployment and release-ready status. Outputs include automated pipelines, deployment scripts, and releasable software versions.
Example in practice
When a software team needs to frequently update product features, CD is adopted. For example, a SaaS company establishes a CI/CD pipeline where every code commit is automatically tested and deployed to a pre-production environment. The team can release new versions with one click at any time, shortening time-to-market and reducing human errors. Ultimately, customers get new features faster.