the release · the gate
The release gate
All items checked before the flag is enabled. Not most — all. A single unchecked item delays the release.
Code and quality
- ☐ All stories in this slice approved — PO, QA, and designer confirmation
- ☐ Pipeline passing on staging — all stages green including security
- ☐ QA report attached — scenarios verified, exploratory findings documented
- ☐ Designer sign-off on full-fidelity states — implementation matches design
Performance and observability
- ☐ SLOs confirmed in staging — measured, not estimated
- ☐ Monitoring dashboards live with alert thresholds set
- ☐ Analytics events firing correctly — prediction measurement instrument working
- ☐ Prediction baseline captured — the "before" numbers, recorded before the flag enables
Security and integrity
- ☐ SAST passed — no new high-severity findings
- ☐ Dependency audit clean — no known critical CVEs
- ☐ Migrations tested in staging — timing recorded, rollback plan written
Operational readiness
- ☐ Runbook written, reviewed, and rehearsed — rollback time confirmed
- ☐ On-call rotation confirmed for the 48 hours following release
- ☐ Flag cleanup ticket created with 30-day deadline
Communication
- ☐ Release brief sent to client before users encounter the feature
- ☐ CS briefed — happy path, limitations, likely questions, escalation path
The Product Owner makes the go/no-go call, with input from the tech lead on operational items.