Versioning and Compatibility Management Questions

Covers strategies and practices for managing software and platform evolution while minimizing disruption to users and dependent teams. Core areas include versioning strategies such as semantic versioning and other scheme trade offs; artifact management including use of artifact repositories like Docker Registry, Artifactory, and Nexus, artifact promotion through environments, and integration with version control and build pipelines; handling backward compatibility and breaking changes through deprecation policies, migration paths, compatibility tests, feature flags, and support for multiple concurrent versions; release and upgrade processes including testing and validation, rollout and rollback procedures, and coordination and communication across teams; metrics and success criteria for migrations and upgrades; and tooling and automation for continuous integration and continuous delivery, dependency management, and governance of published artifacts and interfaces.