Which term describes the practice of applying software updates quickly and continuously?

The concept that effectively captures the practice of applying software updates quickly and continuously is Continuous Deployment. This approach focuses on automating the deployment process such that every code change that passes automated tests is automatically deployed to production. This enables teams to release software updates to users rapidly, ensuring that new features, improvements, and fixes are available as soon as possible.

By implementing Continuous Deployment, organizations can achieve a more dynamic and responsive development cycle, allowing for faster iteration based on user feedback and reducing the time between when a change is made in the code and when it is live for customers to use. This practice not only facilitates agility in development but also encourages a culture of continuous improvement within teams.

Continuous Delivery is related but has a slightly different focus. It ensures that code changes are automatically prepared for a production release but does not automatically deploy to production without manual approval. In contrast, Hotfixing typically refers to quickly addressing specific issues in production without following the normal release cycle, and Release Train is a planning method for coordinating releases rather than a continuous deployment strategy.