Release Readiness Checklist Template

The purpose of this Release Readiness Checklist is to ensure that new functionalities are thoroughly verified and validated before being released to the end users.

This Release Readiness Checklist is intended as guidance, so it may not cover all potential issues or considerations. Always take into account the unique requirements and constraints of your specific project.

Note: All the following operations are executed on the software version that is set for release:

• Product version:
• Code version (commit/tag):
• Date:
• Release notes link:
• New functionalities link:
• List of impacted GitHub repos:
• Compatibility matrix link:

Area	Details	Owner / Approver	Status	Comments / Evidence
Engineering / New functionalities	Feature completion: All planned features for this release have been completed. Code coverage: All new code is thoroughly validated and covered by low-level tests (unit, property, component, and integration). Code security: The new code is free of security vulnerabilities and does not introduce any security risks to the application or user data. Automated tests: Automated unit and integration tests are in place and pass successfully.	Engineering lead
Engineering / Regressions	Regression testing: All existing functionalities, key flows, and low level tests have been executed and confirmed to work correctly. Performance testing: There are no performance degradations in this release, when compared with previous releases. Database & infrastructure changes: Any database or infrastructure changes are tested, and ready.	Engineering lead
Test engineering / New functionalities	Feature completion: All planned features for this release have been completed and have passed the final product validation, including e2e testing, UAT, exploratory, and sync testing across all supported platforms and devices. Full traceability is established between each feature, its user stories, acceptance criteria, and corresponding system-level test results, demonstrating that all requirements are met. End-to-end tests, including edge and corner cases, have been conducted and passed successfully. All functional and non-functional requirements have been successfully validated. Usability testing: The user interface and user experience are consistent and intuitive. Exploratory testing: Exploratory testing has been conducted and has passed successfully. UAT: User Acceptance Testing has been completed and approved.	Test engineer lead
Test engineering / Regressions	Regression testing: Automated regression testing has been performed to ensure existing functionalities are not broken. Performance testing: There are no performance degradations in this release when compared with previous releases.	Test engineer lead
Security	Code security: Code is free of known security vulnerabilities as verified by automated scans and manual reviews. Product security: Security tests have been conducted to ensure new features don't expose any security vulnerabilities. Compliance: The new features comply with relevant legal and regulatory requirements. Audits: All planned audits were finalized and passed.	Security lead
Product management	Feature completion: All planned features for this release have been completed and satisfy the acceptance criteria.	Product lead
Delivery	Bug resolution: All reported bugs categorized as 'blockers' or 'critical' have been resolved. Any 'major' remaining bugs are understood and accepted. Risk management: All risks are analyzed and addressed (ie accept, mitigate, transfer). Dependency management: All dependencies have been assessed and their status updated ('done,' 'canceled,' or 'not required'). Pre-production validation: The code version was deployed and fully validated in a pre-production environment that replicates the production environment as closely as possible. Deployment schedule: The deployment is scheduled for a time that minimizes risk and impact on users. Release notes: Release notes are prepared, highlighting the new functionalities, bug fixes, and known issues. Documentation: All relevant documentation (including user guides, API references, release notes, etc.) is updated to reflect the changes in the new release.v Known issues, limitations, and breaking changes are clearly documented in the release notes and relevant documentation.	Delivery lead
Operations	Update procedures: All procedures for updating the production environment (including environment readiness, configurations, rollback plans, etc.) have been reviewed and are ready for execution. Rollback plan: A robust and tested rollback plan is in place in case of issues during deployment or post-release. Monitoring tools and knowledge: The Operations team has the necessary monitoring tools in place, along with the knowledge and understanding of the new functionalities, to effectively track their performance and stability after deployment.	SRE/DevOps lead
Legal	Communication review: All planned communication is approved by the Legal department.	Legal representative
Marketing, Comms	Internal communication: Internal teams and stakeholders are informed about the upcoming release and its impact. External communication: Marketing materials for external audiences (eg customers or press) are prepared to be distributed through appropriate channels.	Marketing lead
Customer support	Support readiness: The support team is prepared to provide immediate support related to the new version.	Customer support lead

Legend:

• Status
  • in progress (work still needs to be done)
  • done/success
  • done/fail
  • N/A: This item cannot logically apply.
  • WAIVED: This item could apply, but the stakeholders deem it unimportant.
• Evidence
  • link to evidence that supports the status
    • link to test results report
    • link to bug reports
    • link to metrics
• Comments
  • are there any limitations, known risks, etc?