I code at the interface between ops teams (on the business side) of companies and dev teams (on the IT side).
One of the things I've realized is that in most unregulated companies (read: non-healthcare/financial) the business side of the house is used to having little or no lower lifecycle.
If they want to make a process change, they make it on production work.
Granted, they have change control approvals, etc. etc., but the whole dev-test-prod cycle looks extremely different for them, because you can't do certain things without lower environments.
This hasn't been my experience. I think it depends on how business-critical the application is.
I worked at a home remodeling company. Revenue was several million dollars a day. App handled sales, scheduling, logistics, everything. Breaking production was a big deal, it cost us millions per day and created logjams.
I would think that most online applications are the same. Even if a simple online web shop goes down you are costing money.
What kinds of experiences have you had where testing in production was the norm?
because you can't do certain things without lower environments.
I agree that this is something many shops REALLY struggle with.
One of the most challenging things is exporting or creating some kind of realistic data set for local development use. I think 99% of companies struggle with this.
One of the things I've realized is that in most unregulated companies (read: non-healthcare/financial) the business side of the house is used to having little or no lower lifecycle.
If they want to make a process change, they make it on production work.
Granted, they have change control approvals, etc. etc., but the whole dev-test-prod cycle looks extremely different for them, because you can't do certain things without lower environments.