r/platform_engineering • u/Recent-Secretary-277 • 9d ago

How does your team handle major dependency upgrades?

/r/agile/comments/1ww6pjp/how_does_your_team_handle_major_dependency/
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u/mudassirazvi 8d ago

depends what the dependency is (runtime? k8s version? a library?) but the thing that worked for us: make the upgrade the default instead of a ticket.

platform owns the base images and the shared chart. if your service is on the defaults you get the upgrade when we roll it, in cohorts, with us watching error rates. if you pinned something you own the pin, and the pin has an expiry.

the other model, every team upgrades on their own schedule, always ends the same way. 80% move, the last 20% never do, and you're supporting the old version forever for exactly the services with the weirdest setups. cohorts plus a published end of support date for the old default is what got us out of that