Avoiding Friday deploys creates Monday chaos.
Why this matters in practice
The common practice of not deploying on Fridays stems from the fear of being entangled in weekend firefights. However, this avoidance can lead to an accumulation of unresolved tasks, increasing the backlog. When this backlog is addressed, usually on Mondays, it results in simultaneous releases that can overwhelm systems and staff. For example, a Shopify store that delayed updates, only to face Monday's multiple patch releases, experienced mismatched app versions and checkout failures, causing more havoc than a singular Friday release. Smaller, more frequent updates mitigate such risks, allowing teams to manage changes proactively, ensuring operational continuity.
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