ARE YOU PREPARED FOR

CONTINUOUS DELIVERY?
A CHECKLIST

The goal of a Continuous Delivery strategy is to reduce cycle times while maintaining or improving
quality. There are many aspects of a successful Continuous Delivery approach. This checklist
highlights steps to take on your path and best practices you may want to consider adopting.

Are You Versioning Everything?
oo Version everything you need to build, deploy, test
and release your software — from requirement
documents and network configuration scripts to
binaries and operating system images
oo Require everyone on your team to store their digital
assets in the same versioning platform
oo Version non-software assets, including artwork,
videos, sales and marketing collateral, budget
spreadsheets and project management files
oo Make sure all build artifacts are controlled alongside oo Invest in the infrastructure you need to maximize
the rest of the application
oo Enable any team member to have a productive, new
environment created from a single command —
from any secure workstation
Have you Automated All You Can?
oo Automate as much as you can up to the point
where human interaction is absolutely necessary,
including build and software release processes,
acceptance tests and database upgrades/downgrades
oo Be able to recover an exact snapshot of the state of
your entire system (from development environment
to production environment) from any point in the
project’s history
oo Use automation to provide “fast feedback”
automation
oo Ensure that automated processes are used by
everybody
Are You Using a Mainline Model?
oo Utilize a mainline model — a single repository
stream of development that contains all the code
and all the assets in your product release, ensuring
that you can build and deploy at any stage
oo Merge small changes and bug fixes back into
mainline early to prevent development from
straying too far from production
oo Create branches for only new releases
oo Avoid having multiple scrum teams working in
parallel on a feature to prevent merging hell
oo Use “peer review” to allow teams to review and
approve changes before they get into the mainline.
Does Everyone Have Visibility?
oo Provide visibility to everyone about everything
going on
oo Invest in monitoring and reporting to improve
visibility
oo Collect and analyze data to drive improvements
and increase efficiencies
oo Extend analysis beyond the code, to include
environments and the broader infrastructure
oo Use visibility to foster collaboration and improve
communication and feedback
Do You Have a Single Source
of Truth?
oo Rely on a unified repository that supports virtually
unlimited scaling
oo Track every change — to every asset, including
changes to requirements and how they have evolved
over time
oo Encourage best practices in development and
deployment through traceability
oo Protect against potential litigation by knowing the
location of all assets, changes made to them and by
whom
oo Invest in a repository that supports heterogeneous
environments (including different development
and Continuous Integration platforms)
Want to Learn More?
Get the full report, “Continuous Delivery: Five Habits of
Highly Successful Practitioners.” Or listen to case studies
from leading companies like Salesforce.com, Edmunds.
com, CCP Games and more.

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