Run a Backward-Compatibility Review Before You Ship
Walk through a lightweight review process for deciding whether an API change is backward-compatible.
Three “small” changes are queued for release, but their impact on existing clients has not been examined explicitly. Surface touched → client assumption → impact type → release treatment Common trap: judging a change as safe because it is easy to implement, not because it is safe for existing clients. Before “These are minor tweaks.” The team is reasoning from implementation size rather than customer impact. After Each change is classified by its effect on existing client assumptions, and the release plan changes accordingly. 1 Name the public contract element touched: field, validation rule, ordering, enum, or event behavior. If…
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