Hi,

After almost two years without a release, this Saturday marks the big day.
One of my clients hasn’t released for two years - incredible 🤯

Why? There are many reasons.

The team got entangled in complexity. Significant (and necessary) changes were made.

But these led to numerous side effects. And the goal was to do everything “right.” So, development continued. With one topic completed, five new ones emerged.

Breaking out of this cycle was challenging.

When I joined the team in July, we decided: We need to break this vicious cycle.

We must go through the door with what we have today.

Despite this decision, it took another four months.

• Migrations had to be caught up
• The deployment had to be automated as much as possible
• A mountain of bugs needed fixing
• Obvious performance bottlenecks had to be resolved
• And differences between environments had to be partly resolved or specifically addressed during deployment

Despite the long journey - it was a Herculean effort to get here.

And this Saturday, we finally break the cycle. I’m looking forward to it.

Because:

I Love Release Days

This release will be huge. By our estimates, it will take 4 hours in the best case, likely closer to 8.

But the day will be fantastic. The energy a release creates is magical.

We’ve called all colleagues to the office. Everyone should sit together in one room. The euphoria should be contagious.

This feeling of having achieved it together. The entire team should feel and share it.

It’s a cause for celebration!

Of course, things will go wrong.

After such a long time and with so many changes, that’s normal. But I’m not afraid. We’ll find solutions for everything!

And it will be our breakthrough.

if it hurts, do it more often.

~ Martin Fowler

Once this release is out - we plan the next one. But not in two years.

The cycle must be shortened. First three months, then two, then one, and then we aim for two weeks.

Can we go even lower? I don’t know. But it’s necessary.

Releases should be fun.

Wish us luck 😉

Rule the Backend,

~ Marcus