The Fallacy of Move Fast and Break Things

The article discusses the concept of "move fast and break things" popularized by Mark Zuckerberg, which has become a motto for many development teams aiming to release more and ship faster. However, moving too fast without proper processes in place can lead to high consequences such as longer incident resolution times, loss of customer confidence, employee burnout, and high turnover rates. The Accelerate: State of DevOps Report shows that elite teams not only move faster but also have a lower likelihood of failure and faster recovery from incidents. To effectively move fast, companies need psychological safety and smart investments in tooling. Employees should feel empowered to speak up about concerns and identify gaps in processes without fear of blame. Additionally, the right tools and processes such as observability and monitoring, incident management, feature management, targeted rollouts, and experiments can help deliver more value faster without sacrificing quality or employee health.