Why Manual Gates Failed Us

Human approval does not scale the way you think. Manual gates sound responsible. Someone reviews. Someone approves. Nothing risky slips through. In practice, they fail quietly. Approvals Become Rituals Over time, manual approvals turn into habits. Approve because: the build looks normal nothing failed this is routine people are waiting Approval loses meaning. It becomes a checkbox. The first few times you approve a production deployment, you take it seriously. You check the changeset. You review test results. You verify that everything looks correct. You ask questions if something seems off. ...

July 10, 2025 · 4 min · Jose Rodriguez