We’re deeply invested in the future of software development, specifically how we can deliver exceptional value to users while minimizing risk. That’s why we’re excited about Dr. Nicole Forsgren and Abi Noda’s new book, Frictionless: How to Outpace Your Competition in the AI Era.

For years, Dr. Forsgren’s work—from the DORA research to the Accelerate book—has provided the quantitative science behind high-performing teams. Now, Frictionless gives us the human blueprint: Developer Experience (DevEx). This book isn’t just a friendly suggestion for happier teams; it’s a strategic necessity that perfectly complements and empowers the Progressive Delivery narrative.

The Progressive Delivery Mandate

The philosophy of Progressive Delivery evolved from the need to move beyond Continuous Delivery (CD). While CD focuses on the technical ability to release at any time, Progressive Delivery focuses on control, safety, and business value. It’s about building the right thing for the right people at the right time, minimizing the risk to users.

Our framework is built on four core pillars: abundance (do I have the resources I need, when I need them?), autonomy (as a developer can I safely move at my own pace?), alignment (as a developer are efforts aligned with user needs and business outcomes), and intelligent automation (are my products removing toil for my users). We show that success isn’t just a technical trick, it’s an organizational system that focuses on delivering software responsibly and iteratively.

Why Frictionless is Progressive Delivery’s Engine

If Progressive Delivery is the strategic framework for how we safely roll out changes, then a Frictionless Developer Experience is the high-octane engine that makes that framework possible, fast, and sustainable.

Dr. Forsgren’s work on DevEx illuminates the “invisible barriers” that kill innovation, which is the very thing Progressive Delivery is designed to accelerate. Her research highlights three critical dimensions of a good DevEx:

1. Fast Feedback Loops: Progressive Delivery relies on swift, accurate data from production (observability, user analytics) to decide when to expand a feature rollout. If a developer’s local feedback loop is slow (i.e., flaky tests, slow builds, cumbersome code reviews), they lose context and momentum. Frictionless ensures the Progressive Delivery tools themselves don’t become the source of delay.
2. Low Cognitive Load: Progressive Delivery inherently adds complexity. Developers must understand feature flag states, deployment strategies, and monitoring dashboards. If the underlying processes—the internal platforms, documentation, and tools—are convoluted, the complexity of Progressive Delivery practices becomes overwhelming. Frictionless reduces the mental tax required to engage with modern delivery tools, allowing engineers to focus on building features, not fighting infrastructure.
3. Achieving Flow State: A developer in flow is productive, innovative, and engaged. Frequent interruptions, broken tools (the #1 cause of bad days in Forsgren’s research), and process inefficiencies are pure friction. A team struggling with a painful, manual release process cannot possibly adopt the rapid, iterative, and autonomous release culture required by Progressive Delivery.

In short, you can define the perfect, safe release strategy (Progressive Delivery), but if the developers are constantly slowed by flaky CI/CD pipelines, unclear ownership, or burdensome context-switching—all forms of friction—your delivery velocity will grind to a halt.Nicole Forsgren’s Frictionless provides the research-backed, systematic methodology to identify and remove those barriers. By investing in the day-to-day lives of our engineers, we are not just investing in “happiness”; we are making the most strategic investment possible in our ability to execute Progressive Delivery’s promise: safer, faster, more aligned software delivery. The lesson is clear: Frictionless teams are the only ones who can truly achieve Progressive Delivery at scale.

You can hear more about Dr. Forsgren’s perspective on the software engineering craft in this clip: Dr Nicole Forsgren’s CONTROVERSIAL Take On Software Engineering vs. Craftsmanship.