Azure Bicep Has a Plan Mode: Use It On Your Next Production Deployment

Azure Resource Manager's What-If operation is the Bicep equivalent of `terraform plan` — it predicts infrastructure changes before applying them. The post covers how to run What-If at different deployment scopes, how to interpret its output symbols (create, delete, modify, nochange), and how to integrate it as a mandatory pipeline stage. Key guidance includes treating deletions as a separate risk class, classifying modifications by blast radius rather than line count, handling provider-generated noise by establishing a baseline, using JSON output for automated policy gates, and understanding that What-If is pre-deployment evidence rather than a state lock.