In software engineering, accumulating code behind a release wall is akin to gathering water behind a dam.

Just as a dam must be built higher and stronger to contain an increasing volume of water, the more code we delay releasing, the more resources we must allocate to prevent a catastrophic flood—major bugs or system failures—while also managing the inevitable trickles—minor issues and defects. Frequent, smaller releases act like controlled spillways, effectively managing the flow of updates and reducing the risk of overwhelming both the system and the team.

The ideal of ci/cd may not be achievable for all teams, but smaller and faster is always better.