Skip to content
Cute Patterns!

Stages Pattern 🎭

Overview 📋

This pattern describes the three-stage deployment model: Development (dev), QA (staging), and Production (prod). Each stage serves specific purposes in the software development lifecycle and has distinct characteristics and requirements.

Goals 🎯

  • Clear separation of development, testing, and production workloads
  • Consistent progression of changes through environments
  • Reliable testing and QA processes
  • Protected production environment
  • Traceable deployments

Stage Definitions 🔄

Development (dev) 💻

Purpose: Active development and integration testing

Characteristics

  • 🔧 Reflects current development state
  • 🌿 Deployed from dev branches
  • 🧪 Allows experimental features
  • 🔄 Frequent updates
  • 📦 Latest dependencies

Configuration

# dev environment configuration
environment: development
debug: true
log_level: debug
feature_flags:
  experimental: enabled

QA (staging) 🧪

Purpose: Quality assurance and pre-production verification

Characteristics

  • 📊 Mirrors production setup
  • 🔍 QA testing environment
  • 📑 Production data copies (anonymized)
  • 🌿 Deployed from main branch
  • 🔄 Regular but controlled updates

Configuration

# staging environment configuration
environment: staging
debug: false
log_level: info
feature_flags:
  experimental: configurable

Production (prod) 🚀

Purpose: Live system serving real users

Characteristics

  • ✅ Stable and verified code
  • 🏷️ Deployed from version tags
  • 🔒 Strict access control
  • 📈 Production monitoring
  • 🔐 Security hardening

Configuration

# production environment configuration
environment: production
debug: false
log_level: warn
feature_flags:
  experimental: disabled

Workflow 🔄

Code Progression

graph LR
    A[dev Branch] --> B[main Branch] --> C[Version Tag]
    A --> D[dev Environment]
    B --> E[staging Environment]
    C --> G[Change] --> F[prod Environment]

Database Handling

Database state is exported from production into the backup system. From there a backup is imported into a fresh staging environment.

Access Control Matrix 🔐

ResourceDevStagingProduction
Environment Access🔴 Only Team and Stakeholders🔴 Only Team and Stakeholders🟢 Users
Deployment trigger🟢 Dev-Branch Commit🟡 Signed maintainer commit after merge🔴 Signed Version Release

Quality Gates

Development to Staging

  • ✓ All tests passing
  • ✓ Code review completed
  • ✓ Main branch merge
  • ✓ Automated deployment

Staging to Production

  • ✓ QA approval
  • ✓ Performance testing
  • ✓ Security scan
  • ✓ Version tagged
  • ✓ Release notes
  • ✓ Deployment plan

Anti-patterns to Avoid ⚠️

  • ❌ Bypassing staging environment
  • ❌ Using production data in development
  • ❌ Manual configuration changes
  • ❌ Inconsistent environments
  • ❌ Direct production hotfixes

Best Practices 💡

  • 📦 Use infrastructure as code
  • 🔄 Automate deployment processes
  • 🔍 Maintain environment parity
  • 📊 Regular staging refreshes
  • 🔐 Strict access control
  • 📝 Comprehensive logging
  • 🎯 Feature flags for control

Environment Setup Checklist 📋

  1. Infrastructure provisioned
  2. Security groups configured
  3. Monitoring enabled
  4. Backup strategy implemented
  5. Access control configured
  6. Deployment pipeline tested
  7. Documentation updated
  • 🔄 Deployment Pipeline
  • 🔐 Access Control
  • 📊 Monitoring Strategy
  • 🗄️ Database Management
  • 📝 Change Management