10 Years of "Continuous Delivery"

In a few weeks time it will be the 10th anniversary of the publication of the book - “Continuous Delivery”, and to recognise this milestone, I am giving away a free, signed, first edition copy of the book - read on…

Jez Humble and I spent 4 years writing the book, and several years before that doing the work that informed that writing. Continuous Delivery has been a feature of my life for a long while now. I very clearly recall the sense of pride when our book was published, nevertheless neither of us thought that it would have the impact that it has and that the ideas would become so widely recognised as the state of the art in software development. Continuous Delivery is now the approach behind the work of many of the biggest and most successful software-driven organisations on the planet.

Originally we had a few celebratory things planned for this 10th anniversary year. Jez and I spoke together for the first time at the DeliveryConf in Seattle, at the start of the year (you can watch it here). Then a global pandemic reminded us of the limits of our planning.

The Importance of CD

I have spent the last few years working as an independent software consultant, advising clients on how to improve their software engineering practices, with Continuous Delivery at the heart of those improvements. I have become more convinced, rather than less, that the ideas in Continuous Delivery are important, and bigger than I thought when we wrote the book.

I believe that the reasons why CD works is that it is rooted in some deep, important ideas. It is primarily focussed on learning efficiently. CD works by creating fast, efficient, high-quality feedback loops that operate from the few seconds of feedback from a TDD test run, to the feedback generated by creating a releasable thing multiple times per day. It also facilitates that most important feedback loop of all, from customer to producer. Allowing organisations to experiment with their products and hone them to better meet the needs of customers and so create great products.

When we came up with the ideas and practices of CD it was done as an exercise in empirical learning and pragmatic discovery. We did none of this based on theory, all was based on practical experience in real software projects. Since then, through my experience of helping people to understand and adopt these practices in all sorts of organisations, for all kinds of software, I now recognise some deeper explanations for why CD works.

Continuous Delivery is Software Engineering and the results when we apply it are astonishing and dramatic, as shown by Jez’s work with Nicole Fosgren.

So ten years later, I feel like I am on something of a mission. I believe that CD matters because Software matters and CD is THE BEST WAY TO CREATE SOFTWARE with speed, efficiency and quality.

And so, time freed up by lockdown has given me the impetus to do something I’ve been thinking about for a while. 

CD Online

Continuous Delivery YouTube Channel

I have begun a series of videos, published weekly (every Wednesday evening, UK time) on YouTube, in which I explore different aspects of, and different ideas that are prompted by, Continuous Delivery and its practice.

My “Continuous Delivery Channel” covers my thoughts and experiences on Continuous Delivery, DevOps, TDD, BDD and Software Development as an Engineering discipline. It is quite wide-ranging talking about the technical, cultural and organisational practices and impact of Continuous Delivery.

CD.Training Courses

I am also in the process of getting most of my training courses set up on-line. Starting later in the summer, my on-line training programme will include:

• "Continuous Delivery - Better Software Faster"
• "Anatomy of a Deployment Pipeline"
• "TDD - Design Through Testing"
• "ATDD - Stories to Executable Specifications"
• "Leading Continuous Delivery"

With more to follow.

CD Mail-List

I have set up a mail-list, to share updates on the latest videos, blogs, discussions and events, and to let people know when the training courses come on-line. So if that is of interest to you, please sign-up.

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of my book, and the launch of CD.Training, I am giving away a signed, first-edition, copy of the “Continuous Delivery” book, to one person drawn at random from the CD Mail List, on 31st July.