Hotfix — Friday Afternoon
Why last-minute hotfixes ruin weekends — and how to avoid them.
👋 Hello, this is Valentina with the free edition of the Optivem Journal. I help Engineering Leaders & Senior Software Developers apply TDD in Legacy Code.
It’s 6 PM. You’ve already been working overtime, trying to fix the critical bug reported by a major customer at 3 PM.
Management is on an urgent call with the team — the fix MUST be deployed today. Every hour the software is down, the customer loses $10,000.
You know that it’s impossible to deliver the bug fix within that that time, but you’re powerless. You can’t do anything. You can’t tell the truth to the management.
The developers have to work overtime…. again…
It’s not your fault…
You tried to warn management that thorough QA was needed, but deadlines came first.
The release went ahead after just two manual QA cycles, because it was already late.
However, the whole team knew that there was not enough testing.
Customers became the testers.
The pressure is on
Important customers were reporting critical features not working. Management was pressuring developers to deliver a hotfix ASAP.
The fix must be deployed with the next few hours!
We release the hotfix but we make the fire worse
QA needed several days for thorough testing, but there wasn’t time.
The hotfix went out without proper regression testing… only to cause additional breakages in production. The customer was was angry because it took too long to deliver the hotfix, and even worse, that the hotfix caused additional major bugs!
How do we avoid the stressful hotfixes?
Many developers feel stuck, thinking that’s just the way it is, that development must be a high-stress job… there’s no other way.
There are two parts to the solution:
Prevent (or minimize) hotfixes — avoid the situation that customers are reporting regression bugs (esp. critical regression bugs)
Handle inevitable hotfixes safely and quickly — deploy hotfix to production ASAP, without causing additional regression bugs
The solution: Acceptance Tests
Acceptance Tests are most crucial test type your team needs to be sure that software works as required. By having Acceptance Tests in your Pipeline, you can release software with confidence, without waiting for customers to raise alarms.
When done right:
Hotfixes become rare.
If a hotfix is needed, it can be deployed safely within hours.
You gain peace of mind and protect both your users and your team from unnecessary stress.
What you’ll get out of this training
✅ Walk through a practical Acceptance Testing Architecture using a real codebase
✅ Learn the Four-Layer Model for Acceptance Tests and why it is maintainable
✅ Write robust tests that express behavior in domain language, not UI or technical details
✅ Make Acceptance Tests executable specifications shared by PO, QA, and Developers
Event Details
📅 Date & Time: Wed Feb 25, 5-7PM (CET)
📍 Where: Live online
💰 Cost: €97 — (100% off for Optivem Journal paid members)
🔗 Reserve Your Spot: Acceptance Testing (Live Training)
Replay will be available to Optivem Journal Paid members.
Who is this session for
Senior Engineers & Tech Leads who want to eliminate manual regression testing, who want to increase quality across their teams
Who this is NOT for:
If you’re comfortable accepting constant production issues and manual QA — this training isn’t for you.
🎁 Free for Paid Optivem Journal Members
If you’re already a paid member
👉 Click here to claim your 100% discount
Not a member yet? You can upgrade now and get immediate access to the session (plus replays and future events).
👉 Upgrade to Paid Membership
If brittle E2E tests and regression bugs are slowing your team down…
You don’t need more tests.
You need tests that express behavior and survive change.
That’s what we’ll build in this live training.
📌Spots are limited – Sign up here: Acceptance Testing (Live Training)
See you there!
Fridays are always the worst for hotfixes 😅