A couple weeks ago, I started on a bit of tirade discussion about version control that turned into a short series - Version Control and You Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 - and while that series may expand later, I'm moving onto the next step of the process....

Deployment!

For some people, the idea of deploying code keeps them up at night. Every time they consider what it takes to deploy their latest and greatest changes, they break into a cold sweat. They think they know the changes they've made. They think they know the code/db changes required. Generally this type of team has a deployment process of "well, we ftp it to the server and click around to see if it works".

Um... yeah.

For the record, that's not a deployment strategy. It's the fastest way to break everything and piss off frustrate your users.

It's getting closer.

You see your todo list shrinking and growing all at once.

You see your inbox grow faster than you can read.

Your IM client is exploding with news... good and bad.

Ah, you must be making a release.

As I write this - 08 Oct 2007 - this month I've prepared two major sites for launch and actually launched a third. All were relatively well planned in terms of the todo list, critical pieces, who had what responsibilities, and where things were likely to go/not go wrong.

Of course, as one brilliant general - Helmuth von Moltke the Elder - once said:

No battle plan survives contact with the enemy.

There is nothing more true. No matter how well you plan, when you have a fixed deadline, lots of moving parts, and an imperfect set of information - sort of the definition of life ;) - some things are going to wrong. Some things can go horribly wrong.... but they don't have to. When you have a focused team, shared goals, and good preparation, it can actually work.

Last night, I had the opportunity to be involved in one of those. Yes, things went wrong. Yes, there were difficulties. Yes, we came down to the wire. Yes, there was lots of stress.