Deployment Frequency
ELI5 — The Vibe Check
Deployment Frequency is how often you ship to production. Elite teams: multiple times per day. If you only deploy once a month, each deploy is a big scary event. Deploy 10 times a day? Each deploy is tiny and low risk. More frequent = smaller batches = less risk per deploy.
Real Talk
Deployment frequency is a DORA metric tracking how often code is deployed to production. Higher frequency indicates smaller batch sizes, faster feedback loops, and lower risk per deployment. Elite performers deploy on-demand (multiple times per day); low performers deploy between once per month and once every six months.
When You'll Hear This
"We went from monthly deploys to daily — each one is smaller and less risky." / "High deployment frequency requires automated testing and deployment — you can't manually QA 10 deploys a day."
Related Terms
Continuous Deployment
Continuous Deployment is like Continuous Delivery but with no one at the door — the pizza delivers itself the moment it's ready.
DORA Metrics
DORA Metrics are four numbers that measure how well your team delivers software: how often you deploy, how fast code goes from commit to production, how of...
Lead Time for Changes
Lead Time for Changes measures how long it takes from code commit to production deployment. Elite teams: less than an hour. Slow teams: weeks or months.
Trunk-Based Development
Instead of giant feature branches that live for 3 weeks and cause merge hell, trunk-based development has everyone commit to main every day.