Powering Continuous Delivery With Feature Flags

Continuous delivery is an era where software development teams use automated testing and QA tools to deliver stable and performant software at accelerated cadences. However, most end-user software releases are coupled with code deployment, relying on testing and QA to identify issues before release. To mitigate risk in feature releases, introducing feature flags (feature toggles) into the continuous delivery process allows for efficient integration of release, deployment, and operational management into the software development cycle. This separation of feature rollout from code deployment enables percentage rollouts, user-targeted releases, and instant feature rollbacks, providing real-world user and performance feedback without the risk of widespread backlash or degraded performance. Companies like Google, LinkedIn, and Facebook have supplemented their continuous delivery processes with feature flagging systems to control feature rollouts, targeted releases, and assess infrastructure performance under new releases.