Feature Flag Maintenance

Using feature flags in your feature releases is becoming the norm. Feature flags allow you to test your code in production, perform canary releases, and even conduct A/B testing. However, when you have a ton of feature flags, it can be overwhelming. How do you handle it? In this talk we will go through the entire feature flag lifecycle. This includes creation, naming conventions, workflows, reporting, and testing. You will walk away with a better understanding of how to manage your feature flags to be more productive.

Transcript

1. FEATURE FLAG MAINTENANCE
2. Allows you to separate code deployment from feature release. WHAT IS A FEATURE FLAG?
3. FEATURE FLAG USE CASES TESTING IN PROD A/B TESTING KILL SWITCH SUBSCRIPTION MANAGEMENT MIGRATION TO MICROSERVICES
4. CLEANUP ROLLOUT IMPLEMENTATION CREATION Feature Flag Life Cycle
5. CLEANUP ROLLOUT IMPLEMENTATION CREATION Feature Flag Life Cycle
6. INCLUDE TICKET NUMBER INCLUDE THE NAME OF THE SERVICE INCLUDE THE NAME OF THE TEAM THAT THE FLAG BELONGS TO INCLUDE THE NAME OF THE FUNCTIONALITY CREATION
7. ENGAGE WITH THE DIFFERENT STAKEHOLDERS BE SURE THERE IS CLEAR OWNERSHIP CREATION
8. CONSISTENCY = KEY CREATION
9. CLEANUP ROLLOUT IMPLEMENTATION CREATION Feature Flag Life Cycle
10. IMPLEMENTATION CHANGES TO FF SHOULD BE TREATED LIKE CODE DEPLOYS REQUIRE APPROVALS FOR CONFIG CHANGES
11. IMPLEMENTATION MAKE FLAGGING DECISIONS ON THE SERVER BETTER PERFORMANCE NO CACHE INVALIDATION DECREASES COMPLEXITY
12. IMPLEMENTATION DON’T CHANGE THE SCOPE OF YOUR COMPONENTS JUST TO SUPPORT FEATURE FLAGGING DECISIONS MAKE YOUR FLAGGING DECISION AS CLOSE TO THE LOGIC AS YOU CAN
13. IMPLEMENTATION - TESTING Choose the most important flows to automate and test Work with your product owner to prioritize what these flows are Target your automation bots inside the feature flags
14. CLEANUP ROLLOUT IMPLEMENTATION CREATION Feature Flag Life Cycle
15. ROLLOUT USERS SHOULD CONSISTENTLY HAVE THE SAME EXPERIENCE INCREASING EXPOSURE TO A FEATURE SHOULD NOT AFFECT THE CURRENT EXPOSED POPULATION
16. ROLLOUT BUILD A FEEDBACK LOOP OBSERVE AND ADJUST
17. ROLLOUT SET UP ALERTS TO PAGE YOU WHEN YOU GET ANY STATISTICALLY SIGNIFICANT CHANGES
18. IMPACT
19. “IT’S NOT MAGIC, ITS FEATURE FLAGS.” ~Talia Nassi
20. CLEANUP ROLLOUT IMPLEMENTATION CREATION Feature Flag Life Cycle
21. CLEANUP ASSIGN AN EXPIRATION DATE FOR EACH FLAG SET UP ALERTS THAT WILL POKE YOU WHEN A FLAG IS STALE
22. CLEANUP ADD A SUBTASK TO YOUR BACKLOG TO RETIRE THE FLAG AT THE SAME TIME THE FLAG IS CREATED MAKE SURE YOU MET YOUR DEFINITION OF DONE
23. BE SURE TO REMOVE THE OLD CODE WHEN YOU DELETE THE FEATURE FLAG CLEANUP
25. @talia_nassi talia.nassi@split.io