On Fear of Friday Deployments

This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Steve Fenton

Khalil Gibran (1883–1931) wrote Fear, a poem that explores how we might overcome our fear by thinking of ourselves as a river that flows into an ocean. The river doesn’t disappear, it becomes something bigger.

Well, last Friday at lunchtime, I shared that I had deployed twice already that day. Lots of people say you shouldn’t deploy on Friday, but I’ve thought about this deeply, and I don’t agree that this should be classed as a best practice.

Well, if a rational approach doesn’t work for you and the power of poems like Gibran’s Fear are an indication of reaching a more emotional connection to a message, let’s explore this topic once again.

No Fear of Friday Deployments

By Steve Fenton

Inspired by Khalil Gibran and styled after the inspirational speech moment in a Danny Boyle film.

It is said that before deploying on Friday,
a developer trembles with fear

Fear of the weekend breaking
fear of the pager’s midnight song
fear of users lost in digital darkness
while they sleep peacefully unaware

But I say to you:
What is this fear but a shadow
cast by practices of old?

For you have built your fortress
with the stones of automation
tests that run like faithful sentries
pipelines that flow like rivers
carrying your code safely to the ocean

You have monitoring as your eyes
redeploys as your swift retreat
feature flags as your gentle gates
that open and close at will

The ancient ways whispered:
“Deploy only when the sun is high
and when all hands are upon the deck.”

But Continuous Delivery proclaims:
“Every moment is sacred,
every commit a deliberate call
answered with the confident shout of automation.”

Fear not the Friday
for your code has already walked
through valleys of testing
crossed deserts of integration
and emerged clean in the oasis
of your staging environment

What is Friday but another day
when your practices prove their worth?
What is deployment but breathing
natural, essential, unafraid?

Deploy, then, with confidence.
Let your software flow like water
finding its way to users
who wait unknowing
for the gift of your creation

For in the end
it is not the day that determines fate
but the discipline of your craft
and the wisdom of your tools.

This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Steve Fenton