Andrew's Digital Garden

Tech migrations at Spotify

With large tech migrations (aka upgrade efforts), Spotify noticed what they call the 'long tail'. The later stages of a migration where efforts peter out, and you ned up with a fragmented system running on different stages of the migration. This long tail blocks migrations, and their effectiveness.

To help combat this, Spotify have found a few helpful approaches.

More carrot, less stick. Show the value rather than a mandate.

Ruthlessly prioritise. Migration work takes time. Avoid overwhelming teams with work that isn't absolutely crucial.

Productify-migrations. Assign a PM, keep people accountable, lead with value, test first, gamify, etc. Make your migration a product.

Automate. Make migrations as easy as possible. Ideally teams don't even need to know about migration as they're entirely automatic.

[[20220328112501-lava-layers]]

[[migrations]] [[refactoring]]

Tech migrations at Spotify