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Blog AuthorSiva Prasad
PublishedAug 22, 2024
Views2,162
Read Time20 mins
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I strongly believe that agility and efficiency are the core success enablers in software development. This is why I know how crucial feature flags are in DevOps. With this type of tactic, you are able to verify and integrate new features without the stress of a full deployment. That is the value proposition of this innovative technique.
These toggles allow you to enable or disable separate features at any given point in time. For me, it has been a veritable boon as it has helped me try out new concepts in an under-production app. This way, I am able to gather customer feedback without compromising product stability.
In my view, feature flags have changed the way teams operate for the better. It enables testing new ideas and making changes in response to users’ responses to them.
In this blog, I will help you learn all about this strategy. We will focus on their advantages and how to use them successfully. So let us move ahead and see how this tool can result in a smoother development process.
In its simplest form, a ‘feature flag’ is a method by which the developer can switch on or off a product’s features without deploying new code to the application. This way, you can upload code with new features, but these are unseen to the user until you are ready to display them. This technique comes in handy when you want to introduce new features to the production environment without necessarily affecting all users.
Feature flags in DevOps are called toggles or switches. Developers may use it for testing and gradual rollouts. This makes a release process less risky and lets teams manage new features covered by flags.
When people mention feature flags, they mean the implementation of these toggles into CI/CD processes. This integration enables the teams to release code often and in a safe manner.
This practice perfectly fits within the DevOps framework, which targets circular integration and application delivery speed. DevOps feature flags can help teams implement better deployment models and maintain or even increase the quality of applications.
Feature flags must be understood as being at the very foundation of DevOps. Below are some of the reasons why they are vital-
Based on my experience, feature flags enable different teams to easily turn off the feature to avoid any disasters to the main app. If a new feature happens to be problematic, it can be switched off without rolling back the entire deployment.
Using the feature flags in DevOps, you can release new chunks of code more often. This means that features can be improved in the production version without necessarily having to wait for the next release cycle.
In my experience, a team can slowly unroll new elements to let only some users try and share their opinions.
Developers, testers, and product managers can communicate better about feature readiness and performance. This is a primary benefit of such flags.
Feature flags in DevOps help teams sift features for deployment without final release. This way, they get to experiment more freely and manage risks effectively. This lets them remotely work on the new feature before full implementation.
Enabling features for specific users or users in a particular group is an efficient way of getting feedback from the developing teams. This is because the toggles offer an opportunity to improve certain aspects before going for a broader launch.
With feature flags in DevOps, you can serve different versions of a feature of distinct user groups. This will help in direct comparison of the two versions. You can then pick the better version without having to undergo two rounds of deployment.
Feature flags in DevOps enable new features to be made available on a limited basis to some users while gradually making them available to all.
If there is a bug, the flags can then easily be rolled back. Doing so will prevent further problems without releasing new code.
This technique helps to approach development in an organized way. Here, you can merge code changes without deploying them. Hence, you are able to avoid risks to overall app stability. DevOps Certification programs highlight such strategies for efficient development.
These switches help you turn on new features in production. This enables the development team to kill the release if things go south. This benefit will bring down the odds of a bad release.
I would add that even if teams need to switch between two versions of the feature, they can do it in a matter of minutes without any more code pushes.
When you have many feature flags in DevOps, it may expand the codebase and cause serious difficulties in the project. You need to make sure that flags are adequately recorded and also taken care of.
In the long term, there may be a lot of feature flags that are not being used. This issue may introduce technical debt. You need to prevent this by regularly keeping the area clean of obsolete flags.
This technique comes with the need for extra testing activities. This happens because the feature needs to be tested on and off pretty frequently and regression testing must be performed in both contexts. This is to make sure that the existing functions are not damaged while the feature toggle is in place.
Release managers must manage this process over time to properly manage the feature toggles.
If the feature is not likely to change frequently, then using a feature flag is equally as complex as not using it. In such cases, it may be more effective to just deliver the solved need of functionality.
You must ensure that the tool platform is compatible with other development CI/CD tools you use in your development process. However, the best platforms must provide APIs and SDKs for popular programming languages.
You must choose a solution capable of growing as the number of flags and users grows. Here, you need to think about how this platform has been developed. It will be a good idea to assess its capability in larger load and flag scenarios.
It should be simple to operate even if the team members have the least input knowledge. A good platform should let the team operate the flagging button with the least effort and training. When it comes to the software interface, you have to evaluate the design, and the level of detail that the software provides.
You must look for platforms where data does not have to be just a simple Boolean value. Rather, it needs to support formats like arrays, strings, JSON, dates, etc. These options provide the possibility of being used for more diverse work.
You should ensure that the front-end and back-end are not affected by the platform you have created. Regarding flagging, the SDK should support caching and webhooks for the subscription changes to the items.
In my opinion, you need to choose a tool that has good analytical and reporting features. They will help you in identifying the usage of such features. Plus, you will come to know about the results of the experiments that you conducted.
Other features like the targeting capabilities for user segmentation and the integration of features like A/B tests further enhance the feature management.
Implementing feature flags in DevOps involves several steps:
You need to decide which features will be wrapped in flags. It could be new additions or updates to existing features. Some developers use this technique to experiment with features that are yet to be fully tested.
You can use a feature flagging tool where you can define and work with the flags directly from the code. It needs to be executed as per the CI/CD pipeline norms.
Next, you should deploy the code containing the flags to your production environment. You must ensure that the flags are initially set to ‘off.’ This way, the end users never see them till the new features are tested to the fullest.
You have to enable the feature flags in DevOps for the user groups or environments over time. Here, you need to be vigilant about measuring the impact of the new changes.
Once the rollout of the system is complete, you can analyse the data collected. You must evaluate the feature based on the users’ comments. This will help you rate the performance as enabled, adjusted, or disabled.
At this stage, you would have thoroughly tested a feature and it is live. You can wrap up by deleting the obsolete feature flags within the code to limit clutter.
Feature flags in DevOps are an efficient tool that may radically alter how you build and deploy software and apps. With this, you can get more benefits and improve production efficiency. However, you may need to pay attention to feature flags carefully to avoid complexity and technical debt.
In my opinion, feature flags DevOps bring many benefits to a company. Hence, I can say that it is worth investing in such a tool. Teams that want to improve their skills in modern development practices will find it particularly useful.
If you are eager to enhance your skills in DevOps, I invite you to explore the DevOps Course at Star Agile. This elaborate program is designed to equip you with the essential tools and knowledge needed to excel in the DevOps domain.
These act like switches for turning on or off a specific functionality in an app without deploying new code. The development team uses this technique for A/B testing and gathering user feedback. It helps experts to experiment with new concepts and make decisions based on real user data.
The use of feature flags in DevOps makes it possible to release code frequently and smartly manage feature releases. Therefore, this approach makes it easier to complete iterations in the Agile software development domain.
Those in the development and testing team would find feature flags DevOps to be beneficial. They can use it as an efficient way of increasing the frequency of deploying products. They can mitigate the risks that come with new feature deployment. It also gives them the space for experimentation and testing.
You can opt for leveraging feature flags in DevOps whenever you change features or do experiments without redeploying your code. They are significantly helpful, especially when launching new features that are still in the testing phase. It is an impactful way of separating code development from feature releases. This way, you can adhere to continuous delivery practices. Be it tweaking new features or enabling rollbacks, you can enable these updates without deploying new code.
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