a·gen·tic a·gil·i·ty

The Hidden Costs of Supporting Multiple Versions in Production

Maintaining multiple production versions increases bugs, merge conflicts, and technical debt, making development harder and less efficient for engineering teams.

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https://nkdagility.com/resources/un1ZqM8aYng

Supporting multiple versions in production is a hidden tax on engineering teams.

Every version adds:

Reverse integration—back-porting fixes to older versions—is even worse. It creates instability, increases the risk of unintended regressions, and wastes engineering time.

And then there’s branch by customer—the absolute worst-case scenario. Maintaining separate branches for each client is a scaling disaster, guaranteeing technical debt and a painful development experience.

If a team is struggling to keep track of where changes are applied, it’s already a sign that the branching strategy is broken. Standardise, simplify, and move forward—not backward.

Also published on: LinkedIn
Software Development Technical Mastery Miscellaneous Technical Debt Modern Source Control
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