Instructor Guide | ITIL® 4 Specialist: High-Velocity IT

release process faster and more robust. These practices aim at small
and frequent batches of work due to the following reasons:
Early availability of functionality makes the work more valuable.
Fast feedback loops due to smaller changes that help create a
safe environment.

Let’s discuss the three practices.

Continuous Integration is a software development technique
to push new and changed software into a shared Deployment
Pipeline multiple times a day. Usually, a set of automated
tests validates the checked-in code. The validated code gets
merged automatically into a shared code branch for subsequent
deployment into the production environment.
Continuous Delivery is the frequent deployment of typically
small batches of code into the production environment.
Continuous Deployment is the automation of the Continuous
Delivery process.

It is clear from the figure that:

Continuous Integration is part of both Continuous Delivery and
Continuous Deployment.
Deployments to production environment in Continuous Delivery
are manual (push-button deployments).
Continuous Deployment includes automated deployments to
production. In other words, the entire software development
lifecycle is automated.

Role of Automation
The three practices strongly depends on comprehensive automation
of the build, test, and deployment process, such as:
Build Automation: Encompassing version control and the merging
of multiple developers’ changes into one shared code branch
Test Automation: Testing and validating each change
automatically in production-like environments
Automatic Provisioning
and software to activate a customer’s purchased services
Deployment Automation: Automating the process of moving
code from pre-production environments to the production
environment
Post-Deployment Testing: Validating functional and non-
functional properties, in particular, performance/load testing as

The extensive automation requires an effective collaboration and healthy

relationships between everyone (developers, testers, DBAs, systems
administrators, users, and the business) involved in the process.

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