Don't just mark some users as beta in your database

In the world of software development, managing beta features is a crucial aspect of delivering cutting-edge experiences to your users. Beta testing allows you to introduce new functionalities gradually, gather valuable feedback, and ensure a smoother transition to the final release. However, the seemingly straightforward approach of marking users as "beta" in your database is just a quick and temporary solution that often falls short of meeting the demands of modern software development. In this article, we'll explore why this approach is far from ideal and why a more sophisticated solution is needed.

-- Simple way of marking some users as beta testers
SELECT "isBeta" FROM users WHERE id=$1

Limited Access and Elevated Permissions:

One of the most glaring issues with marking users as beta in the database is the need for direct access to the production database. Typically, only engineers have this level of access, and making changes to user flags requires elevated permissions. This approach puts a heavy burden on engineers and poses security risks. Not only is it inefficient, but it also hampers collaboration between development and non-technical teams, such as product managers and customer support, who may need to manage beta access for different users.

Lack of Visibility and Traceability:

When you mark users as beta in the database, you often lack visibility into who has access to beta features and when they were granted this access. This absence of tracking and auditing can be a significant problem, especially when trying to analyze user behavior, gather feedback, or troubleshoot issues related to beta features. Without proper traceability, you're left in the dark when it comes to understanding how your users are experiencing your beta features.

All-or-Nothing Approach:

The isBeta column in your database is an all-or-nothing solution. It means that once a user is marked as beta, they have access to all the beta features. This approach lacks granularity, making it challenging to provide a tailored experience to different users or groups. Many times, you may want to offer beta access to certain functionalities while keeping others under wraps. This one-size-fits-all approach can be frustrating for both users and developers.

Duplication of Mechanisms:

In a complex application, users are not the only entities that need feature flagging. You might want to flag teams, workspaces, projects, or even specific user roles. With the isBeta approach, you'll need to implement similar mechanisms multiple times, leading to redundancy in your codebase and increased maintenance overhead.

Conclusion

In conclusion, while marking users as beta in your database might appear as a quick and easy way to manage beta features, it falls short in several critical aspects. It limits access, lacks visibility, offers an all-or-nothing approach, and leads to code duplication when dealing with different entities. To overcome these challenges and streamline your beta feature management, consider adopting a dedicated feature flagging and beta user management system such as GroundControl.