Generally, most teams use multiple branches to manage this challenge to an extent. This strategy, consumes lot of time in integration & regression testing cycles every sprint. Could there be better solution? What if we could save the time we spend on these regression cycles? Think of solution where there is single branch to commit to, and everything is released to staging/production, but features are ”Toggled” depending on their usability/need. This talk explores a concept called “Feature Toggles” and how it could help us make test cycles short. Talk emphasizes on effectively managing multiple streams, without delaying the delivery of software. It mainly focuses on various useful techniques (Branching, Feature Toggles etc.) which can help agile teams with multiple sub-teams to efficiently manage their codebase & releases to achieve faster delivery.

1. Is your code Toggled?!?
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Devi Sridharan
Siddhartha Deshpande

2. What is Agile?
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3. According to Agile Manifesto...
The Agile Manifesto is based on 12 principles
1.Customer satisfaction by rapid delivery of useful software
2.Welcome changing requirements, even late in development
3.Working software is delivered frequently (weeks rather than months)
4.Close, daily cooperation between business people and developers
5.Projects are built around motivated individuals, who should be trusted
6.Face-to-face conversation is the best form of communication (co-location)
7.Working software is the principal measure of progress
8.Sustainable development, able to maintain a constant pace
9.Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design
10.Simplicity—the art of maximizing the amount of work not done—is essential
11.Self-organizing teams
12.Regular adaptation to changing circumstances
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4. Branches
-Release branch
Master & single work-in-branch
-Feature branch
o Master & Multiple branches
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5. Release Branch
-Delayed integration
-Hotfixes has to wait till
next release.
-Can’t add any code if its
not part of current release
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Trunk
Release Branches

6. Feature Branches
-Merging becomes very difficult
-Increases the testing effort
-Lot of time spent on Regression &
Integration Testing
-Reduces the re-usability of shared automate
test-suite
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Feature 1
Trunk
Feature 2

7. Feature Toggle!?!
-What is toggle?
-Feature Toggle is a conditional statement that
hides certain functionality.
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8. Guard the code
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9. Types of Feature Toggles
-Release Toggles: (Development Environment)
- Hide incomplete features and are removed as soon as
feature is ready
-Business Toggles: (Business Sponsors)
- Enable feature for group of people and can be changed
on fly
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10. Feature Toggles is opt for….
-Hiding or disabling new features in UI
-Hiding/Disabling new components
-To support multiple versions of feature/component
-Adding new feature to an application
-Enhancing an existing feature
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11. How to implement ?
- Config files
- Toggle manager controlled by Admin
- Session cookie
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12. Lets Toggle!!
Few ways to control the application using toggles
-via server-side
-via client-side
-URL parameterization
-Javascript
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13. via server
pros
-Feature is available,till next build is deployed
-No further setup is needed
cons
-Need to wait for deployment to complete
-Switching between toggles is difficult
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14. via client
- Need to know feature flag to enable it
- Feature is available,only on local machine
- Testing becomes easier,as we have more control of
application
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15. Business toggles
-Used in production environment
-To enable A/B testing
-Release features to group of users for early feedback
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16. While implementing toggles...
-Try to keep less number of toggles
-Mutually Exclusive toggles
-Remove the toggles as soon as corresponding feature is
implemented completely
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17. What will you achieve…?!
-Continuous integration
-More visibility into all work streams
-No merge conflicts and hence easy to refactor the
code
-Reduced time spent on testing
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18. Having said….
Feature toggle is second best solution.
The best solution is to find a way to
gradually integrate, without feature toggles
or feature switches
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