Team Workflows

Feature flag management becomes more complex as your team grows. This guide covers workflows and practices that help teams collaborate effectively while keeping flags under control.

Team Structures and Flag Ownership

Small Teams (2-5 developers)

For small teams, flag management can be informal:

• Everyone has visibility into all flags
• Flag ownership is implicit (whoever created it)
• Cleanup is discussed in regular team meetings
• FlagShark dashboard serves as the single source of truth

Medium Teams (5-20 developers)

As teams grow, add structure:

• Assign explicit owners to each flag
• Use naming prefixes by feature area or team
• Schedule monthly flag audits
• Track flag metrics (count, age, cleanup rate)

// Prefix flags by team or feature
'payments-enable-apple-pay'      // Payments team
'search-use-new-algorithm'       // Search team  
'growth-show-referral-banner'    // Growth team

Large Organizations (20+ developers)

At scale, formalize flag governance:

• Flag creation requires approval or follows a template
• Mandatory cleanup dates set at creation time
• Flag budgets per team (e.g., max 10 active flags)
• Regular reviews of cross-team flag impacts
• Automated alerts for flags exceeding age thresholds

Workflows for Common Scenarios

New Feature Development

A/B Testing

Emergency Kill Switches

For rapid response capabilities:

// Kill switch pattern - default to feature ON
const paymentsEnabled = flags['ops-enable-payments'] ?? true;

if (!paymentsEnabled) {
  return <PaymentsUnavailable />;
}
return <PaymentForm />;

Communication Patterns

Flag Announcements

When creating a significant flag, announce it:

📣 **New Feature Flag: `enable-new-dashboard`**

**Purpose**: Gradual rollout of redesigned dashboard
**Owner**: @sarah
**Rollout plan**: 10% → 50% → 100% over 2 weeks
**Cleanup target**: March 30

Track in FlagShark: [link to dashboard]

Rollout Updates

Keep stakeholders informed during rollout:

🚀 **Rollout Update: `enable-new-dashboard`**

**Current**: 50% of users
**Status**: Green - no issues detected
**Next step**: Increasing to 100% on Tuesday
**Metrics**: 
- Page load: No change
- Engagement: +5% (promising!)

Cleanup Notifications

When cleaning up flags:

🧹 **Flag Cleanup: `enable-new-dashboard`**

This flag has been at 100% for 3 weeks with no issues.
Cleanup PR: #1234
Merged by: @sarah

The dashboard redesign is now permanent!

Coordination Across Teams

Cross-Team Flag Dependencies

When flags affect multiple teams:

Shared Feature Areas

For code areas touched by multiple teams:

• Establish a flag naming convention for the shared area
• Assign a single team as owner for cleanup
• Use FlagShark's repository view to see all flags in an area
• Hold periodic syncs to review shared flags

Platform vs. Product Flags

Distinguish between:

Type	Owner	Examples	Cleanup
Platform	Infrastructure team	ops-enable-new-cache	When replaced
Product	Product teams	enable-dark-mode	After rollout
Experiment	Growth/Data	experiment-pricing	After analysis

Flag Governance

Creating a Flag Policy

Document your team's flag policy:

# Feature Flag Policy

## When to Use Flags
- Gradual rollouts of user-facing features
- A/B experiments
- Kill switches for critical features

## When NOT to Use Flags
- Configuration that rarely changes (use env vars)
- Flags within flags (simplify first)
- Features with no rollback plan

## Naming Convention
- Prefix: enable-, show-, use-, ops-, experiment-
- Format: {prefix}-{feature-name}
- Case: kebab-case

## Lifecycle Requirements
- Maximum age: 60 days (except ops flags)
- Cleanup PR required within 2 weeks of 100% rollout
- Monthly audit of all active flags

Flag Budgets

Limit technical debt by setting flag budgets:

Team	Budget	Current	Status
Payments	8	5	✅
Search	6	6	⚠️ At limit
Growth	10	12	❌ Over budget

Review Meetings

Schedule regular flag reviews:

Weekly (in standup):

• Any flags rolling out this week?
• Any flags ready for cleanup?

Monthly (dedicated meeting):

• Review all active flags
• Identify stale flags
• Update cleanup targets
• Review flag metrics

Using FlagShark for Team Workflows

Dashboard Views

FlagShark provides views helpful for teams:

• All flags: Complete inventory
• By repository: Flags in specific repos
• Recent activity: What's changed recently
• Stale flags: Cleanup candidates

Notifications

Configure FlagShark notifications:

• New flag detected: Alert when flags are added
• Flag removed: Track cleanup progress
• Stale flag warning: Flags at 100% for too long

Reporting

Use FlagShark reports for governance:

• Flag count over time: Are we accumulating debt?
• Average age: How long do flags live?
• Cleanup rate: How fast do we remove flags?

Onboarding New Team Members

When someone joins the team:

Related Documentation

• Flag Naming - Naming conventions
• Flag Lifecycle - Complete lifecycle management
• Activity Feed - Tracking flag changes
• Configuration - Custom provider configuration