What Are Feature Flags in DevOps?

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Feature flags allow you to toggle between certain features, conditions, and releases for effective delivery.  

Feature flags are widely used across the agile and continuous integration ecosystem. They’re one of the most impactful components of a coherent software development strategy. They’re used by leading enterprises across a wide array of projects and development environments.

Effective deployment of code

Feature flags are highly effective in the deployment of code packages for interconnected software modules. They can allow a project to be delivered faster by switching off certain features within the architecture.

Feature flags for DevOps

Feature flags can be used for switching between features and can be used to indicate whether displaying a certain feature is necessary. They can allow developers to hide certain work-in-progress features while displaying others. They are highly effective in showcasing minimum viable software products as well.

Refined experimentation

Developers can conduct a wide array of experiments using feature flags in order to test out hypotheses for key conditions. A/B testing is made that much easier when developers opt for feature flagging under DevOps.

Safer rollouts

One of the greatest advantages of using feature flags is the safer rollout of new features and integrations. If a certain feature has significant bugs in it, then it can be toggled off for a certain user base. Key features can be turned on for B2B clients and off for B2C customers.

Enhanced user-experience

Feature flags are designed to enhance the user experience for all individuals leveraging the solution. By hiding or showing some features, more information can be captured to improve the overall user experience.

Feature flags are widely used across the DevOps landscape, owing to their flexibility and ease of adoption. Developers can create a deeper foundation in continuous delivery by adopting the best practices in feature flag utilization.