a·gen·tic a·gil·i·ty

The Hidden Costs of Supporting Multiple Versions in Production

TL;DR; Supporting multiple versions in production drains engineering resources through increased context-switching, merge conflicts, and bug risks. Back-porting fixes and maintaining separate branches for each customer make things worse, leading to instability and technical debt. To avoid these problems, teams should simplify and standardise their branching strategy.

Published on
1 minute read
Image
https://nkdagility.com/resources/un1ZqM8aYng
Subscribe

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
Smart Classifications

Each classification [Concepts, Categories, & Tags] was assigned using AI-powered semantic analysis and scored across relevance, depth, and alignment. Final decisions? Still human. Always traceable. Hover to see how it applies.

Subscribe

Connect with Martin Hinshelwood

If you've made it this far, it's worth connecting with our principal consultant and coach, Martin Hinshelwood, for a 30-minute 'ask me anything' call.

Our Happy Clients​

We partner with businesses across diverse industries, including finance, insurance, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, technology, engineering, transportation, hospitality, entertainment, legal, government, and military sectors.​

MacDonald Humfrey (Automation) Ltd. Logo

MacDonald Humfrey (Automation) Ltd.

New Signature Logo

New Signature

Alignment Healthcare Logo

Alignment Healthcare

DFDS Logo

DFDS

Genus Breeding Ltd Logo

Genus Breeding Ltd

Workday Logo

Workday

Boxit Document Solutions Logo

Boxit Document Solutions

Capita Secure Information Solutions Ltd Logo

Capita Secure Information Solutions Ltd

Emerson Process Management Logo

Emerson Process Management

Bistech Logo

Bistech

Microsoft Logo

Microsoft

Illumina Logo

Illumina

SuperControl Logo

SuperControl

ProgramUtvikling Logo

ProgramUtvikling

Epic Games Logo

Epic Games

Cognizant Microsoft Business Group (MBG) Logo

Cognizant Microsoft Business Group (MBG)

Boeing Logo

Boeing

Teleplan Logo

Teleplan

New Hampshire Supreme Court Logo

New Hampshire Supreme Court

Nottingham County Council Logo

Nottingham County Council

Washington Department of Transport Logo

Washington Department of Transport

Washington Department of Enterprise Services Logo

Washington Department of Enterprise Services

Ghana Police Service Logo

Ghana Police Service

Royal Air Force Logo

Royal Air Force

Teleplan Logo

Teleplan

New Signature Logo

New Signature

ALS Life Sciences Logo

ALS Life Sciences

Epic Games Logo

Epic Games

Lean SA Logo

Lean SA

Flowmaster (a Mentor Graphics Company) Logo

Flowmaster (a Mentor Graphics Company)