Interactive graph
Change Window
Table of Contents
Risky changes ship when someone awake can roll back, not Friday night when everyone is offline.
Key Concept
- Rollback Principle fails when rollback owners sleep or attend a wedding.
- A change window is boring calendar hygiene: deploy Tuesday morning, freeze before holidays, keep the old build one click away.
- Not fear of shipping - matching risk to coverage.
- PKM parallel: Maintenance Window schedules garden prune; change window schedules production risk.
- I ship risky changes when someone awake can roll back, not Friday night when everyone's offline.
Level 1 - Recognize
A change window is scheduled time for risky updates when people are available to monitor and undo them.
Level 2 - Explain
It matches deployment risk to coverage so rollback is possible when a change fails.
Level 3 - Use
Deploy Tuesday morning, freeze before holidays, and keep the old build one click away.
Level 4 - Connect
Windows reduce unattended risk but delay changes and require shared rollback skill; urgency does not erase the need for coverage.
Level 5 - Create
Design a change-window policy with risk tiers, rollback owners, and a review that improves the next window.
Examples
- We stopped Friday-night client deploys after the bad release - glad Tuesday standup owns rollback if it goes loud.
- Wedding weekend freeze: marketing edits queue, no Hugo version bumps until Monday.
Note Relationships
| Relationship | Wikilink | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| alternative | Maintenance Window | PKM prune schedule vs production deploy schedule |
| contradicts | Ship It | when milestone pride ships Friday at 5:01 |
| extends | Preparedness | Window assumes rehearsed undo path and someone on call |
| extends | Risk Management | Time-box exposure to staffed hours |
| extends | Rollback Principle | Risky push only when revert crew is reachable |
| extends | Standard Operating Procedures | Written deploy windows belong in the runbook |
