How Often Do Major Software Companies Like GitHub, Facebook, Google, Quora, and Pinterest Push Code to Production?

The frequency of code pushes to production varies significantly among major software companies, influenced by their specific development practices, product needs, and organizational culture. Here’s a comprehensive breakdown of common practices and patterns that these companies follow.

General Release Patterns

Continuous Deployment/Continuous Delivery (CD)

Companies: Many tech companies including Facebook and Google often practice continuous deployment, where code changes are automatically pushed to production as soon as they pass automated tests.

Frequency: This can mean multiple deployments per day, sometimes even dozens or hundreds, depending on the team and the size of the feature.

Frequent Releases

Companies: GitHub and Pinterest typically follow a model of frequent releases, pushing updates several times a week.

Frequency: These can range from daily to weekly, focusing on smaller incremental changes that can be quickly tested and validated.

Regular Release Cycles

Companies: Quora and some teams within Google may have more structured release cycles, such as bi-weekly or monthly releases.

Frequency: This approach allows for more extensive testing and validation before deploying to production, ensuring that the code is thoroughly vetted.

Scheduled Releases

Companies: Some organizations might use a quarterly or semi-annual release schedule for major updates or features while still deploying minor fixes and updates more frequently.

Frequency: Major releases could happen every few months with ongoing minor releases in between, allowing for continuous improvements without disrupting the user experience.

Factors Influencing Release Frequency

Team Size and Structure: Larger teams might have multiple smaller teams working on different features, allowing for more frequent releases. Product Type: Consumer-facing applications may push updates more frequently to respond to user feedback, while enterprise software might prioritize stability and perform less frequent releases. Technical Infrastructure: Companies with robust CI/CD pipelines can deploy more frequently due to automated testing and deployment processes. Market Demand: Companies may increase release frequency in response to competitive pressures or user demand.

Best Practices for Release Cycles

Adopt CI/CD: Implement continuous integration and continuous delivery practices to streamline the process of pushing code to production. Automated Testing: Ensure comprehensive automated testing to catch issues early in the development process. Feature Flags: Use feature toggles to deploy code without exposing it to all users immediately, allowing for gradual rollouts and easier rollbacks. Monitoring and Feedback: Establish monitoring systems to track the performance of new releases and gather user feedback for future iterations.

Conclusion

While there is no one-size-fits-all standard for release cycles, many successful companies have adopted practices that prioritize agility, user feedback, and automated processes. Each company should evaluate its own needs, team dynamics, and product requirements to determine the best approach for its release cycle.