The Big Release Downward Spiral

The riskiness of a release is proportionate to the number of potentially untested paths in the new code. If there are a thousand new possible paths and we've only tested 4, then it's a significant risk to the installed base. If there are two, and we've tested both, then it's not risky at all. The larger a release (the more stockpiled functionality) and the less complete the characterisation via…