Major vs. Incremental site changes

[flyingfisch]

I am the webmaster of a small company site. I was wondering, what are the pros and cons of incremental development? Should I upload small changes one at a time, or should I only deploy major versions and overhauls?

[Josh]

I think the first thing you need to define is what you consider a major version change and what you consider small changes.

I don’t think honestly it matters one way or another in the grand scheme of things.

Are you looking at just releasing the next iteration of their site with a new redesign or something? As long as you tell Google to reindex the site and make sure you don’t have a bunch of broken URLs, it shouldn’t pose any issues to do a large release.

[__]

How you manage changes is more important. Do you use version control? can you quickly upgrade or revert to previous versions (e.g., if a problem with an upgrade is discovered)?

I don’t know, of course, but the way you ask your question makes it sound like you’re “cowboy coding” on a production site. That should never happen: develop locally (or on a dev site); update the production site when everything is ready and tested.

[flyingfisch]

I do use git for version control, and I always test locally before deploying. By small changes I mean should I change color, then layout, etc… or should I do one big color and layout change and push it all at the same time?

[nixnerd]

Here are my rules.

An add = granular change (ex: Color).

A commit = anything accomplished (perhaps a few adds).

A push = something meaningful accomplished (perhaps a few commits).

A new branch = enough changes that it’s significantly different.

A merge to master = a new stable version.

[__]

By small changes I mean should I change color, then layout, etc… or should I do one big color and layout change and push it all at the same time?

Well, if it’s all related work, and makes sense to release all together, and is all ready around the same time, then go ahead and release it all together. It’s kind of a judgement call, and each case will be unique. Sometimes small changes make sense, sometimes major changes are better. Sometimes it will be important, and other times it won’t matter in the slightest.

[Author]

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