Continuous Delivery: lead time and cycle time
Lead time and cycle time are concepts from manufacturing, therefore I use the drawing below for explaining it. On it, a sample manufacturing assembly line, depicting a visual representation for lead time (L) and cycle time (C).
- Lead time: the amount of time a work item takes from the beginning to the end of the workflow
- Cycle time: the interval of time between two consecutive work items leaving the workflow.
Continuous Delivery
Continuous Delivery is a software development discipline that fosters faster and more frequently releases. The deliverable is incrementally built on the delivery workflow (represented on the drawing below), starting on coding, and ending on production. Continuous Delivery relies on high levels of build, integration, test, and deployment automation.
Below is a representative drawing for Continuous Delivery.
- Lead time: The amount of time a work item takes since it is first committed until it reaches production.
- Cycle time: the interval of time between two consecutive deliverable to production.