[10k]: Feature flag framework

[widal001]

Description

Choose and implement a framework for hiding functionality behind feature flags in production.

Business Value & Goals

The goal of this body of work is to:

• Decouple the deploy cycle from the release cycle
• Enable the team to expose or hide features without changing the underlying source code
• Support QA testing of features in production before rolling them out to all users
• Create the foundation for future A/B testing or targeted beta releases to subsets of users

User Stories

• As a developer I want to:
  • expose or hide features without changing the underlying source code, so that we don't have to redeploy each time we want to toggle visibility
  • be able to temporarily expose new features for QA, so that I can test how code behaves in production without impacting the experience of everyone using the application
• As a product manager, I want to:
  • decouple the deployment cycle from the release cycle, so that developers don't need to time their deploys to match communication around the release of certain features
  • hide or expose functionality based on certain conditions at runtime, so that we can conduct A/B testing of certain features or capabilities
  • expose new features to a targeted subset of users, so that they can test and provide feedback on those features before they are rolled out to everyone

Dependencies

• [10k]: Onboard development team #44

Sub-Tasks

#368

Definition of Done

• Functionality can be hidden or exposed in production without changing the underlying source code - documented in documentation/api
  • It doesn't update live; can expand later
• Access to new functionality can be extended to a subset of users without releasing it to everyone using the application - documented in documentation/api
  • Can pass the header but no user by user approach

[acouch]

This wasn't scoped for the "Search UI 30K", moving to "Search 2.0" for now. We did add a limited feature flag for the frontend, but not as comprehensive of what is described here.

[acouch]

@widal001 do we want to keep this open or close it?

Create the foundation for future A/B testing or targeted beta releases to subsets of users

We have met the criteria with the feature flag capability currently except the A/B testing.

[widal001]

Replacing our old 10k ft deliverable issues with a new Epic format

[widal001]

Reopening for review during sprint planning