Introduction to Continuous Delivery

MS Learn path: Design and implement a release strategy — module 1.

Overview

Introduces the shift from manual release management to continuous delivery (CD): what CD is, why it matters, and how a release pipeline carries validated artifacts safely to production.

Units

• What is continuous delivery?
• Continuous delivery vs continuous deployment
• The release pipeline & stages
• Release strategies overview

Concepts introduced

• Continuous Delivery (CD)
• Release pipeline / release definition
• Release strategy

Key terms & commands

• CI → produces a validated build artifact; CD → releases it.
• Continuous deployment = every passing change auto-released (stricter than CD).
• Azure Pipelines: release pipelines / multi-stage YAML.

Hands-on

Required lab evidence: Create a two-stage training release pipeline. Make the first stage publish a version marker and the second consume it. Capture the dependency/order in the run view, then remove the test pipeline or repository.

Exam focus

• Know the CD vs continuous-deployment distinction.
• Understand that CD keeps changes always releasable and relies on automation + rollback.

Related

cd · release-definition · release-strategy · Path MOC