Feature Flags with Edith Harbaugh

Releasing software has inherent risk. If your users don’t like your new feature, they might stop using your product immediately. If a software bug makes it into production, it can crash your entire application.

Releasing software gradually has many benefits. A slow rollout to an increasing population of users allows you to test your software in multiple real-world environments before it goes live to everyone. A system of AB testing different versions of your software lets you see how different flavors of your software perform against similar audiences.

Edith Harbaugh is the CEO of LaunchDarkly, a system for feature management. LaunchDarkly allows developers to deploy new software releases in a controlled fashion. Edith joins the show to discuss how to implement feature flagging, and why an intelligent release process can lead to a more scientific, predictable environment for software development. Edith is also the host of To Be Continuous, a podcast about continuous delivery, software engineering, and DevOps.

Show Notes

Transcript

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