June 2020 Summaries

LaunchDarkly has introduced a Honeycomb integration, allowing users to monitor flag action events alongside operational dashboards. Honeycomb provides observability for modern development teams, helping them learn, debug, and improve their production systems efficiently. By sending LaunchDarkly flag action events as markers to Honeycomb, users can quickly identify if a new feature release contributed to a performance change in their applications. This integration is available to all LaunchDarkly customers and can be configured through the documentation or in-app integrations page.

LaunchDarkly has released its LogDNA integration, allowing users to view feature flag activity logs alongside application logs in LogDNA. This helps correlate log changes with alterations to LaunchDarkly flags, projects, environments, or other entities. LogDNA is a centralized log management solution that assists DevOps teams in developing and debugging applications more efficiently. The integration sends LaunchDarkly audit log events to LogDNA for easier troubleshooting of issues related to feature flag changes. Upcoming collaborative webinars will provide further insights into the partnership between LaunchDarkly and LogDNA. This integration is available to all LaunchDarkly customers, with more integrations possible upon request.

This article provides guidance on migrating from a homegrown or open-source feature flag management system to LaunchDarkly's platform. It highlights potential challenges such as addressing technical debt, prioritizing migrations across teams, and training team members. The migration process is divided into three phases: planning, executing, and post-migration. Tips for each phase are provided, including gradual migration, manageable timelines, choosing the right pilot team, standardizing a naming convention, keeping legacy flags in the legacy system, adding new flags to LaunchDarkly only, changing the wrapper not the calls, dividing into projects, defining your process, using tags, and asking for help. The article emphasizes the importance of planning before executing the migration to prevent technical debt accumulation.

In times of economic recession, businesses must continue investing in their ability to deliver value while minimizing risks and costs. One approach is to make smaller, more frequent software releases rather than large quarterly ones. This reduces the impact of potential failures and allows for faster recovery. Feature management and CI/CD pipelines enable organizations to deploy "broken" code into production without affecting anything, allowing for continuous testing and integration. Breaking features into smaller testable units also helps reduce the cost of development by enabling developers to catch errors early on in the process. Overall, making smaller bets through feature management and CI/CD increases business agility and reduces risk during uncertain economic times.

AppDynamics integration beta release announced, allowing users to incorporate changes in LaunchDarkly feature flags, projects, and team members into their monitoring dashboards. This integration helps monitor operational health and unify health metrics across the entire system. Configuration instructions are provided along with a link to the in-app integrations page for policy configuration or editing. The integration is available to all LaunchDarkly customers. For additional integration requests, users can email the company. New users can contact [email protected] or start a free trial.

The integration between LaunchDarkly and New Relic Insights Pro allows users to send data regarding feature flags, projects, or team members from LaunchDarkly to New Relic, enabling the querying and inclusion of this data in charts and dashboards. This feature is accessible to all LaunchDarkly customers and can be configured through the in-app integrations page, with documentation available to guide users through the setup process. For those interested in additional integrations, LaunchDarkly encourages users to reach out via email. Additionally, potential new users are invited to contact sales or start a free trial to explore the services offered.

LaunchDarkly has introduced new filtering capabilities to enhance the management of feature flags. Four new filter types—Maintainer, Last Evaluated, Experimentation, and Data Export—are designed to answer specific questions about features' states. These filters can be combined for efficient flag search and accomplishment of common workflows. The Maintainer filter helps find flags based on their owners, while the Last Evaluated filter identifies recently active flags. The Experimentation filter is useful for teams using LaunchDarkly's add-on to test releases, and the Data Export filter checks which flags are sending data for analysis.

Feature flags are control points in code that allow multiple variations of a code path to run simultaneously without deploying new code. Deployment automation involves creating repeatable pipelines for moving deployment packages from raw code to executable code running on an endpoint. Config files store variables that can be referenced by applications or services and can be version controlled. Feature flags are like light switches in a building, allowing control over individual features without affecting the entire application. Deployment automation is similar to building new structures, while config files involve rewiring existing ones. Feature flags offer more flexibility and ease of use compared to other methods, providing quick adjustments and bug fixes in production.

In this episode of Test in Production, Yoz Grahame interviews Rebecca Murphey and Ben Vinegar about the evolution of front-end engineering over the years. They discuss how the role has changed from being focused on HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to encompassing a broader range of skills such as understanding systems at scale, distributed systems, and operational concerns that can affect the front end. The conversation also covers the importance of learning new things quickly, making informed decisions, and communicating effectively in front-end engineering roles. Additionally, they share tips for job seekers on how to evaluate potential employers and what hiring managers look for when interviewing candidates. Rebecca Murphey emphasizes that understanding the nature of work at a company is crucial, as it can vary greatly between product companies and agencies. She also highlights the importance of being able to learn new things quickly and demonstrating tenacity in problem-solving situations during interviews. Ben Vinegar shares his thoughts on how tooling has changed front-end engineering by making it less critical for developers to know all the minutiae about how browsers function or how UI threads work. He also discusses the value of having a diverse range of experiences and perspectives within a team, as each framework brings its own unique ideas and best practices. Overall, this episode provides valuable insights into the evolving landscape of front-end engineering and offers practical advice for both job seekers and hiring managers in this field.

In this episode of Test in Production, Yoz Grahame and Dawn Parzych discuss the challenges of parenting during a pandemic. They share their experiences with remote schooling, maintaining work-life balance, and finding ways to keep children engaged and entertained while staying safe at home. They also explore how some DevOps principles can be applied to managing family life in these uncertain times.

The Developer Relations team at LaunchDarkly has introduced a new type of content called LaunchDarkly Guides to provide guidance and best practices for users. These guides are designed to educate and offer a deeper understanding of the product, bridging the gap between documentation and blog content. They cover topics such as getting started with feature management, scaling across thousands of developers, and writing integrations. The team plans to continually update and improve these guides based on customer feedback and will appreciate any input from users.

James Governor of RedMonk coined the term "Progressive Delivery" after a conversation with Sam Guckenheimer about Microsoft's approach called "Progressive Experimentation." Progressive Delivery involves dark launches, testing in production, A/B and blue/green testing. Companies like IBM, Microsoft, Target have adopted this model to deliver new features more quickly and with lower risk. LaunchDarkly is a platform that enables Progressive Delivery by providing feature management capabilities. The adoption of Progressive Delivery will determine the success or failure of modern software development companies.

In response to recent racially motivated violence, LaunchDarkly expresses solidarity with Black community members and commits to taking action beyond words. The company emphasizes its responsibility to combat systemic racism and support affected communities through matching employee donations and contributing $10,000 to Black Lives Matter and Campaign Zero. LaunchDarkly invites customers to adopt a code of conduct that prohibits harassment based on various identities and urges companies to lead by example. Based in Oakland, the company acknowledges its ongoing efforts to foster inclusivity and diversity, recognizing there is more work to be done. Engaging with local organizations such as Citizen Schools and CODE2040, LaunchDarkly seeks to contribute meaningfully to Oakland's community while soliciting feedback on how they can better support these efforts. They acknowledge these initiatives are small but intend to continually seek and implement further actions, maintaining open dialogue with the community to promote progress.