154. Releasing software in Big Bang Fashion -- what to avoid...

When it comes to making changes and updates to software, there is one of two options: either you make incremental changes or you roll out a large update in a big bang fashion. But we’re not talking about life-or-death software like pacemakers or massive impact ones related to rocket launches—of course, those need to be treated with extra care and come with a host of regulations! We’re talking about your everyday applications like Slack, for example. Companies like Facebook have made the mistake of suddenly making big changes to their platforms, creating a sink or swim experience for users, which, as you well know, they raged at. It’s is in our human nature to resist change, so how does a software engineer go about implementing much-needed updates without offending the heck out of users? In this episode, we unpack the advantages and disadvantages of doing big bang rollouts versus smaller, systematic changes that people hardly notice, pointing out the considerations for each approach and giving you pointers for getting it right.