#26DELIVERYRELEASE

Database Migrations

Versioned schema changes

Medium

Overview

Versioned, reviewable database schema changes. Applied automatically during deployment.

Why It Matters

Schema changes are code. Reviewed, tested, reversible. No manual SQL in prod.

The Risk

Manual schema changes cause outages. Changes tested locally fail in production due to data differences. Without rollback capability, failed migrations require manual recovery.

Implementation Components

A complete implementation of this capability includes:

  • Migration framework integrated with application
  • All schema changes defined as migrations
  • Migrations reviewed in pull requests
  • Tested in staging before production
  • Automatic migration application on deploy
  • Rollback migrations for reversibility

Implementation Pattern

  1. 1Use migration framework
  2. 2Review migrations in PRs
  3. 3Test migrations in staging
  4. 4Apply automatically on deploy

Tool Examples

These are examples, not endorsements. Choose what fits your context.