Deployment readiness checklist

Purpose. Confirm that a change has been tested and validated before it reaches production.

How to use

• Complete for every production deployment.
• Mark each item Pass, Fail or N/A.
• A Fail blocks the release until resolved and re-verified.
• An N/A requires a written justification.

Release details

Field	Detail
Release / version
Application component(s)
Change / ticket reference
Target deployment date and window
Prepared by
Date prepared

A. Code quality and peer review

#	Item	Acceptance criterion	Owner	Evidence	Status
1	Feature branch and versioning	Branch from dev, linked to a tracked ticket	Developer	PR link
2	Pull request review	Required approvals at each promotion; comments resolved	Reviewers	PR approvals
3	Formatting and linting	Formatters and linters pass; pre-commit hooks green	Developer	CI logs
4	No secrets committed	Secret scan clean	Developer	Scan output

B. Automated testing

#	Item	Acceptance criterion	Owner	Evidence	Status
5	Unit tests	Pass; coverage threshold met	Developer	Pipeline run
6	Integration tests	Pass against real dependencies	Backend	Pipeline run
7	Build and publish	Image builds, is tagged, and is pushed	DevOps	Registry
8	Static quality gate	Quality gate passed	DevOps	Report

C. Security

#	Item	Acceptance criterion	Owner	Evidence	Status
9	SAST	No new critical issues or unreviewed hotspots	Security	Report
10	DAST	High-risk findings remediated or risk-accepted	Security	Scan report
11	Image scan	No unresolved high or critical CVEs	DevOps	Inspector
12	Security posture	No unresolved critical Security Hub or Config findings	Cloud	Dashboard
13	IAM least privilege	Roles scoped; no wildcard admin	Cloud	Policy review
14	Secrets management	Secrets from Secrets Manager or Parameter Store	DevOps	Config

D. Infrastructure as code

#	Item	Acceptance criterion	Owner	Evidence	Status
15	Terraform validate and lint	fmt, validate, tflint pass	DevOps	CI logs
16	Plan reviewed	No unexpected destroy or replace	Cloud lead	Plan output
17	Environment parity	Staging mirrors production	DevOps	Config
18	Networking and TLS	HTTPS enforced; certificate valid; SGs least-open	Cloud	Config
19	Auto-scaling	Policies configured for expected load	DevOps	Config

E. Performance

#	Item	Acceptance criterion	Owner	Evidence	Status
20	Load test	Meets p95, throughput and error-rate targets	QA	Report
21	Performance test	Within SLO; no regression	QA	Report
22	Resource sizing	Validated against observed utilisation	DevOps	Metrics

F. Resilience and DR

#	Item	Acceptance criterion	Owner	Evidence	Status
23	Resiliency assessment	Meets target policy including RTO/RPO	Cloud lead	Resilience Hub
24	Rollback path	Previous version available; automatic rollback confirmed	DevOps	Config
25	High availability	Multi-AZ; database Multi-AZ or exception recorded	Cloud	Config
26	Backup and restore	Backups enabled; retention meets policy; restore tested	DBA	Test record

G. Monitoring

#	Item	Acceptance criterion	Owner	Evidence	Status
27	Dashboards	Exist for each component with key metrics	DevOps	Dashboard
28	Alarms	Configured for CPU, memory, errors, latency, data tier	DevOps	Config
29	Logging	Shipped centrally with appropriate retention	DevOps	Log groups
30	Alert routing	Critical alarms reach on-call; delivery verified	DevOps	Test alert

H. Data

#	Item	Acceptance criterion	Owner	Evidence	Status
31	Migrations reviewed	Backward compatible or reversible; applied in staging	Backend	Scripts
32	Pre-deployment snapshot	Taken before any schema change	DBA	Snapshot ID
33	Data protection	Encrypted at rest and in transit; least-privilege access	Security	Config

I. Configuration and release

#	Item	Acceptance criterion	Owner	Evidence	Status
34	Environment configuration	Production parameters verified	DevOps	Parameter store
35	Feature flags	New features gated	Product	Flag config
36	Third-party integrations	Payment, messaging, logistics validated in staging	Backend	Test results
37	Release tagging	Git tag with release notes	DevOps	Tag

J. Documentation and communication

#	Item	Acceptance criterion	Owner	Evidence	Status
38	Release notes	Prepared and shared	Product	Changelog
39	Runbook updated	Deployment and rollback runbooks current	DevOps	Runbook
40	Stakeholder communication	Window and impact communicated	PM	Comms record
41	Maintenance window	Scheduled if downtime is possible	PM	Schedule

K. Final approval

#	Item	Acceptance criterion	Owner	Evidence	Status
42	All items complete	Every item Pass or justified N/A	Engineering lead	This checklist
43	Production sign-off	Authorised approver has signed	Engineering lead	Sign-off

Sign-off

Role	Name	Signature	Date
Prepared by (DevOps)
Reviewed by (QA / Security)
Approved by (Engineering lead)

Notes and justifications (required for any Fail or N/A):