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.
Read the paper →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.
Read post →Rollback Is a Story Until You Test It
Every team says they can reverse a database change. Very few have ever tried.
Read post →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.
Read post →"It Passed in Staging" Is Not Evidence
Before you decide how to run a database change, you have to know what it will break.
Read post →