The Hidden Costs of Supporting Multiple Versions in Production

Supporting multiple versions in production is a hidden tax on engineering teams.

Every version adds:

• More context-switching
• More merge conflicts
• More chances for bugs to slip through

Reverse integration—back-porting fixes to older versions—is even worse. It creates instability, increases the risk of unintended regressions, and wastes engineering time.

And then there’s branch by customer—the absolute worst-case scenario. Maintaining separate branches for each client is a scaling disaster, guaranteeing technical debt and a painful development experience.

If a team is struggling to keep track of where changes are applied, it’s already a sign that the branching strategy is broken. Standardise, simplify, and move forward—not backward.