Progressive Delivery Pattern

1. Introduction

The Progressive Delivery Pattern is an architectural approach that allows software teams to deliver code in stages or increments, rather than deploying an entire application at once. This method reduces risk, enhances feedback loops, and allows for more controlled releases.

2. Key Concepts

• Incremental Delivery: Features are released in small, manageable increments.
• Feature Toggles: Code can be turned on or off without redeployment.
• Canary Releases: New features are released to a small subset of users before wider deployment.
• Feedback Loops: Gather user feedback to iterate on features rapidly.

3. Step-by-Step Process

The process of implementing the Progressive Delivery Pattern can be summarized in the following steps:

1. Identify the feature to be delivered incrementally.
2. Implement feature toggles in the codebase.
3. Deploy the code to production with the feature toggled off.
4. Gradually enable the feature for a small user base (canary release).
5. Monitor performance and collect feedback.
6. Roll out the feature to all users upon successful validation.

4. Best Practices

• Use automated tests to validate code changes.
• Maintain feature toggles for easy rollback options.
• Incorporate user feedback in the development cycle.
• Monitor metrics to assess the impact of new features on user experience.

5. FAQ

6. Workflow Flowchart

            graph TD;
                A[Identify Feature] --> B[Implement Feature Toggles];
                B --> C[Deploy Code];
                C --> D[Enable Feature for Canary Users];
                D --> E[Monitor Performance];
                E -->|Success| F[Roll Out to All Users];
                E -->|Failure| G[Disable Feature];