Branch promotion is a relic of slow, manual software delivery

Explains why modern software teams avoid branch promotion, using continuous integration, feature flags, and production-like testing to streamline delivery and reduce risk.

Published on 8 February 2025

Written by Martin Hinshelwood

1 minute read

https://nkdagility.com/resources/xLVnF1dEnfO

Branch promotion is a relic of slow, manual software delivery.

Modern teams integrate continuously:

Every change merges into main as soon as it’s ready.
Deployments are decoupled from releases using feature flags.
Testing happens in production-like environments without blocking releases.

This approach makes rollbacks instant—no need for painful cherry-picking. And it eliminates reverse integration, a practice that introduces more risk than it removes.

The best teams don’t manage branches. They manage flow.

Software Development Continuous Integration Product Delivery Operational Practices Technical Mastery … 10 more Continuous Delivery Engineering Practices Value Delivery Modern Source Control Pragmatic Thinking Frequent Releases Deployment Strategies Market Adaptability Deployment Frequency Release Management

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