Using Toggle Wisely

February 1, 2025 by No Comments

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Using toggles wisely is a powerful tool, but it can also be easy to misapply them and create confusion across the organization. Inappropriate feature toggling can be difficult to test and debug, especially in a distributed system. Moreover, it can be difficult to manage at scale, and may lead to issues with version control.

In order to avoid misuse of toggles, make sure that they are limited in scope and have a clear, understandable purpose. Additionally, use a clear identifier for each toggle that indicates what it affects, such as a description or icon. Finally, ensure that the toggle’s state is always visible to the user by utilizing visual cues such as color and movement, or by adding text next to the toggle that indicates its state.

Lastly, it is important to have a process for pruning old toggles. Whether through code cleanup tasks, or building this into your deployment tools, it is essential to periodically remove unused toggles from your code base. This helps prevent them from accidentally being activated or confusing users, as well as reduces the burden on your teams to manage them over time.