Emily Clarke

When to Use Feature Flags

The ability to toggle features on and off when rolling out a new software product provides developers and testing teams with much more flexibility compared to traditional roll-out methods. When you utilize feature flag SDK tools, you can bake these toggling abilities right in, allowing access for authorized users who may not have the most experience in tech.

This means that feature flagging can be assigned to a greater number of team members to help testing and feedback sessions run more efficiently. This also frees up development time that can be focused on addressing concerns picked up through the flagging process.

Include Feature Flags From the Start

Even if you don't anticipate using feature flags, it's still a good idea to include them in a product version, particularly if the version will be used for testing purposes. Using feature flag SDK tools, you can include the toggle controls as part of the release, making it easy to flag features as needed.

If you don't end up needing to toggle features on or off, great. If you do, however, it's much better to have the option to do so than to need the option later and not have it available.

Turning Features On for Certain Users

When determining the appropriate times to utilize feature flags, consider your roll-out strategy. In some cases, turning on features for a certain percentage of users may be the best route, but in other cases, selecting users for flagging might be best left up to the region of the user.

The goal is to limit feature availability until required feedback is achieved, archived, and reviewed. Additionally, you want to mitigate the fallout caused by faulty features that can lead to catastrophic failure.

If one of these faulty features is released on a wide basis, you may have to pull the product entirely in order to make corrections. This has the potential to cause wide-ranging and wide-reaching fallout that can damage the product's life cycle and your brand's reputation among consumers and business partners.

Author Resource:-

Emily Clarke writes about A/B testing management, benefits and software development strategy. You can find her thoughts at rollout software blog.