Feature Flags & You

Given at BrooklynJS November 2017

Transcript

3. 84 slides 4 sections 42 minutes
5. Rule: Scale is bytes served, users concurrent
6. Reality: Scale is responding to bytes served and users concurrent
10. Reality: Scale is responding to bytes served and users concurrent
11. How fast can you deploy a change?
12. How fast can you FIX a change?
13. How fast can you VALIDATE a change?
15. Team 1 Team 2 Merge Feature A Merge Feature B Deploy Deploy OMG ROLLBACK DEPLOY!!! Merge Feature C Merge Bugfix for A Deploy Deploy BLOCKED!!! Deploy
16. Feature Flags!
19. If User has Feature: Show New Experience Else: Show Legacy Experience
20. Feature Flags Divorce Rollout from Deployment
21. Team 1 Team 2 Merge Feature A Merge Feature B Deploy Deploy Rollout Flag A Rollout Flag B OMG ROLLBACK FLAG A!!! Merge Feature C Deploy Merge Bugfix for A Deploy Rollout Flag A Rollout Flag C
22. It Depends™ on your ENG and PROD teams! What is the scope of a Feature Flag?
23. Feature Package Permission Implementation If/Else Gate If/Else Gate If/Else Gate Target Beta Cohort Client Tier Role / Org Chart Owner Prod / Eng Prod / Sales / CS Client
24. Feature Flags are not Packages… Feature Flags are for new code… Feature Flags are temporary!
25. 1.Feature is planned with PROD & ENG 2.ENG creates flag, all new code behind flag 3.ENG opens flag to feature devs 4.ENG does code review, merges, deploys 5.ENG opens flag to PROD 6.PROD approves, begins rolling out live 7.PROD confirms 100% successful rollout 8.ENG & PROD schedules sprint for removal 9.ENG removes old code & flag
26. 1.At least 1 engineer codes with flag OFF 2.All changes to existing code behind flag 3.Rigorously QA with both flag ON and OFF 4.Seriously, check that flag OFF still works 5.No regressions! 6.You will make this mistake. 7.Did you make this mistake? 8.Learn from it then do #1 and #3 again
27. Build or Buy?
28. 1.Retrieve flag by name… 2.With current user details… 3.And serve variations based on above… 4.Accessible enough your PM can manage it.
30. <Feature name="new-feature" fallback={<OldFeatureComponent />}> <NewFeatureComponent /> </Feature>
32. 1.Iterating faster is Good™! 2.Optimize for inevitable rollbacks 3.Feature flags solve for both 4.I was wrong to hate them for so long