Thanks Brad. I'm only a fan of direct to trunk when the PR starts becoming a constraint to flow; paired programming on a team where the culture is CI for a few passing tests at a time with very short build cycle times is an example. We encourage branches have a lifespan of < 1 day to reinforce CI behavior in a way that the team can make visible to themselves and to make sure branches don't get lost in the shuffle if someone has unexpected life events. Of course, we also want stories that are 2 days or less, so... :)