Field notes from the change window

Resources

Field notes on shipping database changes safely: the ideas behind Simcha DB Studio, and the problems it was built to solve.

The Blast Radius Problem

Knowing a database change is safe before you run it.

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The Human Bottleneck in Database Change

When the only safe path to production is one trusted person, that person is your single point of failure.

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Rollback Is a Story Until You Test It

Every team says they can reverse a database change. Very few have ever tried.

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The Best Database Deploys Are Boring

Heroics are a symptom. The goal is a change that ships the same way every time and surprises no one.

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"It Passed in Staging" Is Not Evidence

Before you decide how to run a database change, you have to know what it will break.

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