"When more gates make things less safe"
More than once, I’ve inherited a release process that looked safe on paper but painful in practice. A legacy system, full of risk, had been wrapped in walls of checks and gates. Releases were slowed down, scheduled carefully, and tightly managed. The idea was to reduce risk by controlling it. But the slower cadence only made things harder. Each release carried a week’s worth (sometimes more) of changes from multiple engineers. When something broke, it was difficult to trace the cause. And because the releases often happened out of hours, fewer people were around to support them. By trying to contain the risk, the process amplified it. My first step in these situations hasn’t been to tear down the checks and gates. It’s been to keep them, but release more often. Smaller changes, released regularly, meant fewer mysteries and faster fixes. Yes, at first it caused problems. But as the team adjusted, the “new normal” of frequent releases became far less painful than the gated, high-stakes version we started with. Sometimes reducing risk means doing the less obvious thing. Not holding tighter, but letting go. Until next time, ✉️ Enjoying The Messy Middle? If someone sent this email your way and you’d like to get it direct, you can sign up here. |