CD Dependencies

Visual guide to the dependencies and practices that enable Continuous Delivery
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The practices and capabilities shown below are based on research and industry standards documented at MinimumCD.org Practices.

Overview

Continuous Delivery is built on a foundation of practices that depend on each other. This dependency tree shows how fundamental practices like Trunk-Based Development, Test-Driven Development, and Behavior-Driven Development support Continuous Integration, which in turn enables Continuous Delivery.

For detailed information about each practice, including implementation guides and research backing, visit practices.minimumcd.org.

CD Dependency Tree

dedicated build server
scripted builds
versioned code base
builds are stored
auto-triggered build
automated tag & versioning
pipeline with deploy to prod
build once, auto-deploy anywhere
scripted config changes
standard process for all envs
automatic DB deploys
zero downtime deploys
zero-touch continuous deployments
defined & documented product development process
definition of done
prioritized work
working agreements
adopt basic Agile methods
one backlog per team
remove boundaries between dev, test, & support
share the pain
stable teams
act on build, quality, test, deploy and operational metrics
common process for all changes
component ownership
decentralize decisions
extended team collaboration
frequent commits
dedicated continuous improvement process
dedicated tools team
deploy disconnected from release
team responsible thru release
cross-functional teams
no rollbacks, always roll forward
consolidated platform & tech
automated api management
library  management
organize system into modules
version control DB changes
branch by abstraction
configuration as code / managed configs
feature hiding / toggling
making components from modules
no long-lived branches, trunk-based development
full component based arch
push business metrics
infrastructure as code
baseline process metrics
manual reporting
measure the process
scheduled quality reports
static code analysis
common information model
report history is available
traceability built into pipeline
dynamic test coverage analysis
graphing as a service
report trend analysis
cross-silo analysis
dynamic graphing and dashboards
automatic unit tests
separate test environment
automatic integration tests
automatic isolated component tests
some automatic acceptance tests
automatic performance tests
automatic security tests
full automatic acceptance tests
risk-based manual testing
hypothesis-driven development
verify expected business value
Test Driven Development.
Continuous Integration.
Behavior Driven Development.
Trunk-based Development.
Continuous Delivery.
Last modified October 20, 2025: docs: comprehensive documentation improvements (c4499d8)