Developers should never have system level access. They should never be able to meddle with the core infrastructure their code runs on. This has nothing, howeve

Developers should never have system level access. They should never be able to meddle with the core infrastructure their code runs on. This has nothing, however, to do with who should be able to publish new code to the website (we're talking web apps here, right?) - that is something that should be handled by documented process, and automated tools to ensure accountability. Hypothetically, as the senior sysadmin, I'd like to sign off on every change that's going public, because I'll have to deal with the fallout if something is wacky. Realistically, I'd also like our senior developer, or failing that, even a more junior developer to be able to push code to production in an emergency if the right people are there to approve it (perhaps not hte proper technical staff, but they can get the okay from the owner to go-ahead). Accountability, automation, and process are key here. The deployment system should be accessible to some people who could potentially get fired for using it wrong, and it should be very clear to them what the right thing to do is. The deployment system could even warn them of this and include official signoff, etc.