continuous delivery
compound.compound. a way of making software where every change is tested and ready to be released at any time. It helps teams get new features to users quickly and safely.
compound. a software engineering approach in which teams produce software in short cycles, ensuring that the code can be reliably released at any time. It relies on automated testing and deployment pipelines to reduce the risk and manual effort of shipping updates.
Our team uses continuous delivery to release updates every week.
By adopting continuous delivery, the startup was able to fix bugs and deploy new features within hours of receiving customer feedback.
The transition to continuous delivery requires a robust automated testing suite and a culture of shared responsibility to ensure that the main branch remains in a deployable state at all times.
A compound of the adjective continuous, from the Latin continuus, and the noun delivery, from the Anglo-French delivrer. The term gained prominence following the 2010 publication of the book of the same name by Jez Humble and David Farley.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Often used in technical contexts alongside 'continuous integration' (CI/CD).
continuous delivercontinuous deliveryThe term is a compound noun; 'delivery' must be in its noun form, not the verb 'deliver'.
Last updated July 22, 2026