Progressive Delivery
Progressive Delivery enhances software delivery through incremental and controlled releases.
Classification
- ComplexityMedium
- Impact areaTechnical
- Decision typeArchitectural
- Organizational maturityAdvanced
Technical context
Principles & goals
Use cases & scenarios
Compromises
- Lack of user acceptance
- Unexpected errors
- Challenges in implementation
- Gather early user feedback.
- Regularly review the results.
- React flexibly to changes.
I/O & resources
- Quality assurance
- Test scenarios
- Feedback loops
- Adaptable software
- Stable rollout
- Increased user demands
Description
Progressive Delivery is an approach for incrementally releasing software updates. It allows teams to introduce changes in controlled environments and gather feedback early. This reduces risks and enhances user experience.
✔Benefits
- Lower risk of outages
- Faster customer feedback
- Increased software quality
✖Limitations
- Requires extensive monitoring
- Can increase complexity
- Requires technological infrastructure
Trade-offs
Metrics
- User acceptance rate
Measure the percentage of users who accept new features.
- Production error rate
The number of errors measured against the number of deployments.
- Lead time for changes
The time taken from the start of a change to its deployment.
Examples & implementations
Gradual Feature Release at Company X
Company X implemented a gradual rollout of a new feature to enhance user experience.
Targeted Testing in Team Y
Team Y utilized user feedback to improve the implementation of a feature.
Risk Management at Company Z
Company Z minimized the risks of software changes through progressive delivery.
Implementation steps
Identify key stakeholders.
Define the goals of the incremental rollout.
Create a monitoring plan.
⚠️ Technical debt & bottlenecks
Technical debt
- Insufficient backup systems.
- Lack of documentation for changes.
- Technical debt from quick rollouts.
Known bottlenecks
Misuse examples
- Introducing a feature without user feedback.
- Rollback without analyzing the causes.
- Using insufficient testing methods.
Typical traps
- Assuming all users are ready.
- Ignoring user reviews.
- Overestimating technical resources.
Required skills
Architectural drivers
Constraints
- • Technological infrastructure
- • Resource allocation
- • Security requirements