Proportionate practice.
WHAT A SMALL TEAM ACTUALLY NEEDS
Version control for everything A documented, ideally automated, deployment Backups that have been restored Monitoring that alerts someone A way to revert
THAT LIST COVERS MOST OF THE VALUE
WHAT SMALL TEAMS DO NOT NEED
Elaborate pipelines nobody maintains Container orchestration Several environments nobody uses Tooling requiring a specialist
WHAT TO ADOPT FIRST
Version control, if anything is not in it.
WHAT TO ADOPT SECOND
A deployment script, replacing manual steps.
WHAT TO ADOPT THIRD
External monitoring and alerting.
WHAT TO ADD AS YOU GROW
Automated testing A staging environment Configuration as code
WHAT TO AVOID
Copying practices from large organisations Complexity that requires the person who built it
THAT LAST POINT
Anything only one person understands is a risk, not an improvement.
WHAT TO DOCUMENT
Everything, briefly.
