This standard ensures changes are deployed to production frequently and sustainably, enabling faster feedback, safer releases, and quicker time-to-value. Deployment Frequency (DF) is a key DORA metric and a signal of healthy engineering flow.
Aligned to our "Fast Feedback Loops" and "Empower Teams to Self-Serve" policies, this standard promotes autonomy, reduces risk, and supports continuous delivery. Without it, releases become bottlenecks, innovation slows, and operational risk increases.
Level 1 – Initial: Deployments are infrequent, manual, and often stressful. Releases require significant coordination and are prone to delays or rollbacks.
Level 2 – Managed: Some automation exists, but deployments are still periodic and depend on manual approval or synchronisation between teams. Release cadence is inconsistent.
Level 3 – Defined: Teams deploy frequently via automated CI/CD pipelines. Releases are decoupled from user impact using techniques like feature flags, blue-green deployments, or canary releases.
Level 4 – Quantitatively Managed: Deployment frequency is tracked, benchmarked, and reviewed. Data is used to identify variation across teams or services and inform targeted improvements.
Level 5 – Optimising: Deployment is a routine, low-risk activity. Teams continuously improve delivery speed and safety, with frequent, small-batch releases that drive rapid learning and high system resilience.