Continuous Deployment of Software Intensive Products and Services: A Systematic Mapping Study

•Systematic mapping study that classifies the continuous deployment (CD) literature.•From 21,382 studies retrieved, 50 were identified as relevant for CD.•We assessed the quality of existing research in terms of relevance and rigour.•Ten themes are identified that provide researchers with directions for future work.•Overall, the topic area is very relevant for industry although its scientific rigor is still low.