Continuous Delivery with Feature-Toggles

In addition to automating build and deployment, there are also changes to the working approach that will reduce development-cycle time. One such change is replacing working with feature branches with working on the master branch in combination with feature toggles. At OTTO we use the feature toggles library Togglz, where we are also actively involved as maintainers of this open source project (1).

Togglz is an implementation of the toggle pattern feature (4). You can think of toggles as switches that turn features on as well as off in operation whenever required. They are an alternative to ‘feature branches’ as they’re known from open source projects on Github, or from working with other versioning services. However, feature toggles are not located at the versioning level but at the application level. We use the Togglz library ourselves daily at OTTO in several development teams, as we believe it offers many advantages.

Working with feature toggles as well as the Togglz library allows us to develop new features asynchronously from other teams, for example. Additionally, toggles mean deployments and product backlogs no longer have to be so closely coordinated with other teams. Similarly, merge conflicts are minimized, because feature toggles completely dispense with feature branches. This in turn reduces the communication effort and goes easy on the nerves of product managers/product owners and developers 😉 – just a few of the many reasons why we rely on feature toggles.

You can find out more about further advantages via the current issue of Java Magazine (10.2020) (3),
available from the kiosk since this week and wherever magazines are on sale. In addition to the use of feature toggles and the associated organizational implications, in the article we also discuss how to integrate and use the Togglz library with a spring boot application, what using feature toggles means for developers’ everyday work – and much more. So it's worth buying the current issue of Java Magazine ;-)