Post by James Snook

🚩 “Let’s just add a flag for that.” As if flags were free. Here's how it goes: • Someone proposes a feature.  • Someone else says it'll break existing behaviour.  • A third person - usually the one with the loudest voice - says: "𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘧 𝘸𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘪𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘧𝘪𝘨𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦?" And suddenly you have a flag. The flag is a lie you tell yourself. You're not 𝘴𝘰𝘭𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 the problem. You're 𝘧𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 it - in a namespace no one will revisit until the codebase is so haunted that onboarding a new developer requires a Ouija board. Two flags interact in ways nobody predicted. Three flags interact in ways nobody 𝘤𝘢𝘯 predict. By the time you have 𝘁𝗲𝗻, you no longer have a 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘵. You have 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘵 𝘴𝘱𝘢𝘤𝘦. And much of the space is unexplored wilderness where bugs live rent-free. The worst part? Flags never die. Flags accumulate, like conference tote bags, until someone senior enough to authorize the cleanup finally loses their temper. Grit your teeth, and make a decision. Choose the behaviour that makes sense for your product and your customers. Add a flag only when you have a 𝗱𝗲𝗽𝗹𝗼𝘆𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 reason, not a 𝗱𝗲𝗰𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗮𝘃𝗼𝗶𝗱𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 reason. And don't forget to regularly clean up the feature flags you 𝘥𝘰 add. 👍 𝗨𝘀𝗲𝗳𝘂𝗹? 𝗛𝗶𝘁 𝗟𝗶𝗸𝗲. ♻️ 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗵 𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴? 𝗥𝗲𝗽𝗼𝘀𝘁. 👣 𝗠𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀? +𝗙𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄. Thanks! #SoftwareDevelopment #TechDebt #Agile