The Dos and Don'ts of Feature Flags - Feature Management - Harness IO

Feature flags are an essential tool for software development teams, allowing them to decouple code deployment from feature release and enhance their release processes through testing, experimentation, and risk mitigation. Best practices for managing feature flags include assigning ownership of each flag to a single team, tailoring management strategies to the specific type of flag, and ensuring consistent user experiences during percentage rollouts. It is crucial to implement feature flagging systems that are not single points of failure and to make feature flag changes backward compatible. Additionally, teams should treat feature flagging code with the same rigor as production code, automate the synchronization of configurations across environments, and have clear plans for retiring outdated flags to avoid clutter. Split Software emphasizes the importance of a systematic approach to feature flag management to drive successful feature releases, improve user experiences, and achieve continuous delivery goals.