How Are You Managing SQL Database Schema Changes and Deployments in Microsoft Fabric?

Hi everyone,

I'm exploring how development teams manage database schema changes and production deployments when working with SQL databases in Microsoft Fabric.

As applications evolve, developers frequently need to add columns, modify tables, update stored procedures, and introduce new database objects.

The challenge is deploying these changes safely without losing existing data, breaking application queries, or creating inconsistencies between development and production environments.

Microsoft Fabric supports Git integration, deployment pipelines, and SQL database projects, but I'm interested in how teams are implementing these capabilities in real development workflows.

A few questions for the community:

1. Source Control: Are you managing Fabric SQL database schemas using Git integration, SQL database projects, or manually maintained SQL scripts?
2. Deployment Strategy: How do you promote schema changes between development, testing, and production environments while preserving existing data?
3. Breaking Changes: What approach do you use when renaming columns, changing data types, or removing database objects that existing applications depend on?
4. Automated Testing: Are you validating database changes through CI/CD pipelines, schema comparisons, or automated integration tests before deployment?
5. Rollback and Recovery: How do you handle unsuccessful deployments, especially when changes involve both database structure and existing records?
6. Team Collaboration: How do multiple developers manage parallel schema changes without introducing conflicts or unexpected deployment behavior?

I'm particularly interested in practical experiences using Visual Studio Code, SQL database projects, Git integration, and Fabric deployment pipelines.

For production environments, would you recommend database project-based deployments with automated validation, or smaller incremental SQL migrations managed through CI/CD?

I'd appreciate any examples, best practices, or lessons learned from teams managing Fabric SQL databases in real applications.

Thanks!