Feature flag products have evolved into comprehensive management tools that allow teams to create variable-based groupings and release features on demand through no- or low-code interfaces. At a minimum, a solution in this space supports the toggling of feature flags with instant platform updates, an ability to set up A/B tests and experiments that target specific user audiences, and a kill switch mechanism for quick corrections. From a flexibility perspective, feature flag products typically support a wide range of common software development kits (SDKs) and platforms, and are scaled to handle billions of events each month.

Employing a feature flag solution enables enterprises to drive faster feedback loops during experimentation and through on-demand releases and highly granular user segment configuration. Feature flags also help minimize overall maintenance costs by reducing the need for multiple staging environments, and they also reduce risk and the need to roll back large deployments because individual features can be isolated as needed.

Leading vendors in this space have evolved beyond table stakes functionality and now offer comprehensive solutions aimed at supporting end-to-end CI/CD and product development. This includes built-in experimentation modules with custom statistical engines, highly customizable workflows that integrate with other deployment tooling, and advanced functionality to manage technical debt as necessary. Challengers in this space are quickly following suit. Prospective customers now have a number of choices: vendors may target developers or non-technical teams, offer standalone solutions or broad portfolios, and/or focus on niche use cases or support a range of user requirements.

This GigaOm Radar report highlights key feature flag vendors and equips IT decision-makers with the information needed to select the best fit for their business and use case requirements. In the corresponding GigaOm report “Key Criteria for Evaluating Feature Flag Solutions,” we describe in more detail the key features and metrics that are used to evaluate vendors in this market.

The post GigaOm Radar for Feature Flags appeared first on Gigaom.

Moving from continuous delivery to continuous deployment is an extremely valuable way for organizations to maintain a competitive edge. Continuous delivery is partly manual, whereas continuous deployment requires higher levels of automation, which also calls for a higher level of governance to be in place. FFs are used to toggle specific application capabilities on and off at execution time without deploying new code. Software development teams using continuous delivery or continuous deployment in an agile environment use FFs to manage the lifecycle of features being developed and released The benefits and use cases of this approach are summarized in Table 1 below.

Table 1: Comparative Summary of Development Stages With and Without Feature Flags

FFs enable developers to wrap new functionality in inactive code paths and activate the functionality at a later time. This approach helps with validating functionality in the production environment and reducing the number of code branches and environments.

FFs are also useful in situations when features must be released for a time-bound period (especially in connection with an event) or on a fractional basis, especially if the feature is partially complete, and there is a need to solicit feedback.

FFs assist with selectively releasing new features for canary releases, which are made available to a subset of the user base. FFs help development and operations (DevOps) teams understand user behaviors regarding new functionality as part of experimentation via A/B testing. Only a subset of users are offered the new functionality and their usage behaviors can be compared with the remaining user base. In addition, FFs enable experimentation to be delegated to product teams, conserving developer time and avoiding upsetting release schedules.

This GigaOm Key Criteria report details the criteria and evaluation metrics for selecting an effective FF solution. The companion GigaOm Radar report identifies vendors and products that excel on those criteria and metrics. Together, these reports provide an overview of this category and its underlying technology, identify leading feature flag offerings, and help decision-makers evaluate these solutions so they can make a more informed investment decision.

The post Key Criteria for Evaluating Feature Flag Solutions appeared first on Gigaom.