The Only Way Is Up: Feature Management Climbing Gartner’s Slope of Enlightenment

The latest Gartner Hype Cycle™ for Agile and DevOps 2022 report highlights that feature management has replaced hypothesis-driven development as the dominant approach to experimentation in software engineering. Feature management is poised to enter mass adoption with a high benefit rating, according to Table 1 in the report. This shift from focusing on technical capabilities to potential business impact marks a significant change for many organizations. Gartner emphasizes that feedback loops are crucial for businesses and can be most useful when they're short and targeted. Feature management enables companies to create a culture of experimentation, allowing them to gather timely, fine-grained feedback and data on new features and capabilities. This leads to faster development cycles, reduced technical debt, and more personalized user experiences.