ominaisuuslipun

Ominaisuuslipun, known in English as a feature flag or feature toggle, is a software development technique that allows teams to turn certain functionalities on or off remotely without deploying new code. This is achieved by wrapping a feature's code in a conditional statement that checks the state of a flag. The flag itself is typically managed through a dedicated service or a configuration file.

The primary purpose of feature flags is to decouple deployment from feature releases. This enables developers to merge code into the main branch frequently, even if the feature is not yet ready for all users. The feature can then be gradually rolled out or "toggled on" when it's deemed stable and ready. This practice significantly reduces the risk associated with large, infrequent releases.

Feature flags offer several benefits. They facilitate A/B testing, allowing teams to compare different versions of a feature with different user segments. They also support canary releases, where a new feature is first released to a small subset of users to monitor its performance before a wider rollout. Furthermore, feature flags can be used for kill switches, enabling quick disabling of problematic features in production to mitigate issues. They are a crucial tool for continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipelines, promoting agility and resilience in software development.