Speed matters. With most agile development methodologies, the faster you can push new code out into the source-code management system, into builds and onto servers, the faster you can evaluate your progress and chart your next moves. From monthly builds came weekly builds, then daily (or nightly) builds. In some shops, those builds are used internally, with less-frequent deployments into the production environment. In other cases, the bits are actually pushed out to production servers daily.

Even the now-common daily/nightly build and deployment schedule may not be fast enough to drive modern development, according to some proponents of ever-more-agile agile methodologies. That’s why thinkers like Kent Beck are now advocating a move from Daily Deployment to Continuous Deployment.

Continuous Deployment is the topic of the first-ever SD Times Virtual Conference, which we’re holding on Wednesday, June 30, beginning at 1:00 p.m. Eastern (10:00 a.m. Pacific). There’s no cost to attend this three-hour educational event, which I’ll be hosting.

Our three instructors are Kent Beck, founder and director of the Three Rivers Institute, and author of “Implementation Patterns,” “Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change,” and much more; Timothy Fitz, tech lead at IMVU and one of the creators of the Continuous Deployment movement; and Jez Humble, build-and-release manager at ThoughtWorks Studios, who is currently writing a book called, appropriately enough, “Continuous Deployment.”

Here’s what we’re going to cover in the virtual conference (you can stay for the whole thing, or choose the parts that seem more relevant to you):

• The potential benefits of Continuous Deployment to your organizations.
• The technology required to implement Continuous Deployment.
• How to apply Continuous Deployment to your company’s existing IT systems.
• How to apply Continuous Deployment to the software you’re creating, both Web and client-installed.
• The social challenges of applying Continuous Deployment in your organization.
• The risks of doing Continuous Deployment wrong—and how you can avoid mistakes.
• The impact of Continuous Deployment on various job functions: testers, marketers, managers, programmers and other stakeholders.
• The prerequisites to Continuous Deployment.
• Practical advice and best practices to take steps toward Continuous Deployment today.

You can learn more, see the agenda and timeline, and pre-register at bzmedia.com/agility/—please join us!

Alan Zeichick is editorial director of SD Times. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/zeichick. Read his blog at ztrek.blogspot.com.