There are two rules I always respect and usually follow:

  1. If a code compiles and seems to work in first try, there is something terribly wrong with it.
  2. Never, ever, under no circumstances, move anything in production on Friday.

I urge you not to break one of these rules, no matter how confident you feel and under no circumstances.

Let me tell you a little story. I have developed a new feature for our renewed web site. This was over two weeks ago and on test system, it was working like a charm. Everyone liked it and there was no bugs found. So, I moved my code to production system. All fine and well, as without content and proper linkage, this feature would not be visible to web users until we decided to allow it. As I said, the thing missing was a content. That wasn’t my job and I paid no heed to it. So on Friday, a co-worker assigned for content gave me a green light. Now, I was feeling overconfident and despite warnings in my head and by my fellow developers, I decided to go with it.

Big mistake. I spent next 4 hours (and some overtime as well), working feverishly to remove bugs that were result of the content. It is not that content was wrong, but rather that it was not tested enough. And for a cherry on a cake, I received a call from project manager on my way home. Apparently he wasn’t aware we are going live. Well not on Friday anyway.

Lesson learned. Never, ever, under no circumstances, move anything in production on Friday. Moving on.