Release Planning

Overview

Release planning ensures coordinated deployment of features to production with minimal risk, clear communication, and established rollback procedures.

When to Use

• Planning major feature releases
• Coordinating multi-system deployments
• Managing database migrations
• Rolling out infrastructure changes
• Planning go-live strategies
• Coordinating customer communication
• Preparing for high-traffic periods

Instructions

1. Release Planning Template

Release Plan:

Release: v2.5.0 - Customer Portal Redesign
Target Release Date: February 15, 2025
Status: Planning
Owner: Product Manager

---

## Executive Summary

This release delivers the redesigned customer portal with improved
UX, performance, and mobile experience. Includes database optimization
and infrastructure scaling.

Business Impact:
  - 25% improvement in user conversion
  - 40% faster load times
  - Mobile-first experience
  - Estimated $500K revenue impact

---

## Release Contents

Features (8 User Stories, 89 points):
  1. New dashboard UI
  2. Mobile responsive design
  3. Payment method management
  4. Account settings modernization
  5. Notification preferences
  6. Dark mode support
  7. Accessibility improvements
  8. Performance optimization

Breaking Changes:
  - API v1 deprecated (v2 required)
  - Database schema changes
  - Changed URL structure (/account → /user)

Deprecated Features:
  - Legacy payment processor integration
  - Old dashboard UI (30-day sunset period)

---

## Timeline & Milestones

Milestone 1: Code Complete (Feb 1)
  - All features developed
  - All tests passing (95% coverage)
  - Performance benchmarks met

Milestone 2: Release Candidate (Feb 8)
  - No new features, bug fixes only
  - UAT completed successfully
  - Security audit completed
  - Performance testing completed

Milestone 3: Release Ready (Feb 14)
  - Production checklist signed off
  - Monitoring and alerts configured
  - Support team trained
  - Communication plan executed

Milestone 4: Release (Feb 15)
  - Phased rollout begins
  - Monitoring active
  - Support team on standby

---

## Deployment Strategy

Phase 1: Canary Deployment (Feb 15)
  - 5% of traffic (100 users)
  - Region: US East
  - Duration: 2 hours
  - Success Criteria:
    - Error rate < 0.1%
    - Load time < 2 seconds
    - Conversion rate maintained

Phase 2: Regional Rollout (Feb 15, 4pm)
  - 25% of traffic (2,000 users)
  - Regions: US East + Europe
  - Duration: 4 hours
  - Monitoring: Every 30 minutes

Phase 3: Full Rollout (Feb 16, 2am)
  - 100% of traffic
  - All regions
  - Continue monitoring 24 hours

---

## Rollback Plan

Rollback Trigger:
  - Error rate > 0.5%
  - Response time > 3 seconds
  - Conversion rate drop > 5%
  - Any critical production issue

Rollback Procedure:
  1. Immediately notify incident commander
  2. Prepare rollback (15 minutes)
  3. Execute rollback (5 minutes)
  4. Verify stability (10 minutes)
  5. Post-mortem (within 24 hours)

Rollback Duration: <30 minutes to previous stable version

---

## Dependencies & Risks

Dependencies:
  - Database migration completion (Feb 1)
  - CDN refresh (Feb 14 night)
  - SSL certificate update (Feb 14)
  - API v2 gateway deployment (Feb 1)

Risk: Database Migration
  - Impact: Blocking risk
  - Probability: 40%
  - Mitigation: Parallel run for 1 week

Risk: Performance Degradation
  - Impact: Customer experience
  - Probability: 30%
  - Mitigation: Load testing, caching strategy

Risk: API Compatibility
  - Impact: Client breakage
  - Probability: 20%
  - Mitigation: Backwards compatibility layer

---

## Testing Requirements

Automated Testing:
  - Unit tests (95% coverage)
  - Integration tests (80% coverage)
  - API contract tests
  - Performance tests

Manual Testing:
  - UAT (5 business days)
  - Accessibility testing (WCAG 2.1 AA)
  - Security testing
  - Cross-browser testing

Load Testing:
  - 10x normal traffic (target: peak day)
  - Sustained load for 1 hour
  - Success: Response time <2s, errors <0.1%

---

## Communication Plan

Customer Communication:
  - Email: 1 week before (Feb 8)
    Subject: "Exciting updates to your customer portal"
  - In-app: 3 days before (Feb 12)
    Banner: "New portal experience launching soon"
  - Release day: Status page updates every 30 min

Internal Communication:
  - Support team briefing (Feb 14, 2pm)
  - Sales team briefing (Feb 14, 3pm)
  - Executive update (Feb 15, 9am)
  - Post-release retrospective (Feb 17)

Customer Support:
  - Support team on standby (24 hours)
  - Chat support 24/7 (Feb 15-16)
  - Email response SLA: 1 hour
  - Escalation line for critical issues

---

## Sign-Off & Approvals

Required Approvals:
  - [ ] Product Manager - Scope & timeline
  - [ ] Tech Lead - Architecture & risks
  - [ ] QA Lead - Test coverage & quality
  - [ ] DevOps Lead - Deployment & infrastructure
  - [ ] Security Lead - Security review
  - [ ] Support Manager - Support readiness
  - [ ] Executive Sponsor - Go/No-go decision

Final Release Approval: ___________________  Date: ________

2. Release Checklist

# Pre-release validation checklist

class ReleaseChecklist:
    CATEGORIES = {
        'Code Quality': {
            'items': [
                'All tests passing (unit, integration, e2e)',
                'Code coverage > 80%',
                'No critical security vulnerabilities',
                'No console errors or warnings',
                'Linting/formatting compliance'
            ]
        },
        'Performance': {
            'items': [
                'Load testing completed',
                'Baseline metrics established',
                'No regressions identified',
                'Caching configured',
                'Database queries optimized'
            ]
        },
        'Infrastructure': {
            'items': [
                'Staging deployment successful',
                'Database migration tested',
                'DNS/routing configured',
                'SSL certificates valid',
                'CDN/cache configured'
            ]
        },
        'Security': {
            'items': [
                'Security audit completed',
                'Penetration testing done',
                'All secrets rotated',
                'Access controls verified',
                'Compliance checks passed'
            ]
        },
        'Documentation': {
            'items': [
                'Release notes written',
                'API documentation updated',
                'Deployment guide prepared',
                'Rollback procedures documented',
                'Known issues documented'
            ]
        },
        'Communication': {
            'items': [
                'Customer comms drafted',
                'Support team briefed',
                'Sales team notified',
                'Status page prepared',
                'Stakeholders informed'
            ]
        }
    }

    def generate_release_checklist(self, release):
        checklist = {
            'release': release.name,
            'target_date': release.date,
            'categories': {}
        }

        for category, details in self.CATEGORIES.items():
            checklist['categories'][category] = {
                'items': [
                    {
                        'task': item,
                        'status': 'Pending',
                        'owner': None,
                        'dueDate': None,
                        'notes': ''
                    }
                    for item in details['items']
                ]
            }

        return checklist

    def validate_release_readiness(self, checklist):
        all_complete = all(
            item['status'] == 'Completed'
            for category in checklist['categories'].values()
            for item in category['items']
        )

        return {
            'release_ready': all_complete,
            'completion_percent': self.calculate_completion(checklist),
            'outstanding_items': self.get_outstanding_items(checklist),
            'blockers': self.identify_blockers(checklist),
            'recommendation': 'Proceed to release' if all_complete else 'Hold - address items'
        }

3. Versioning Strategy

Versioning Strategy:

Format: MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH

Examples:
  v2.5.1 - Patch release (bug fixes)
  v2.6.0 - Minor release (new features, backwards compatible)
  v3.0.0 - Major release (breaking changes)

---

Release Cadence:
  Major: Annually (Jan)
  Minor: Quarterly (Jan, Apr, Jul, Oct)
  Patch: Weekly or as-needed

---

Version Naming Convention:
  Feature Release: v2.5.0
  Hotfix: v2.5.1
  Release Candidate: v2.5.0-rc.1
  Beta: v2.5.0-beta.1
  Alpha: v2.5.0-alpha.1

---

Backwards Compatibility:
  - Maintain n-1 and n-2 major versions
  - Deprecate APIs 2 quarters before removal
  - Provide migration guide for breaking changes
  - Support API v1 through June 2025 (6-month sunset)

4. Rollout & Monitoring

// Phased rollout and monitoring

class ReleaseRollout {
  constructor(release) {
    this.release = release;
    this.phases = [];
    this.metrics = {
      errorRate: 0,
      responseTime: 0,
      userCount: 0,
      conversionRate: 0
    };
  }

  createPhases(strategy) {
    return [
      {
        phase: 1,
        name: 'Canary',
        rollout: '5%',
        duration: '2 hours',
        successCriteria: {
          errorRate: '<0.1%',
          responseTime: '<2s',
          conversionRate: 'No significant change'
        },
        gatekeeper: 'Automated checks + human approval'
      },
      {
        phase: 2,
        name: 'Early Access',
        rollout: '25%',
        duration: '4 hours',
        successCriteria: {
          errorRate: '<0.2%',
          responseTime: '<2.5s',
          conversionRate: 'No drop'
        },
        gatekeeper: 'Manual verification'
      },
      {
        phase: 3,
        name: 'General Availability',
        rollout: '100%',
        duration: 'Ongoing',
        successCriteria: {
          errorRate: '<0.1%',
          responseTime: '<2s',
          businessMetrics: 'Targets met'
        },
        gatekeeper: 'Continuous monitoring'
      }
    ];
  }

  monitorRollout() {
    return {
      metrics: {
        errorRate: this.getErrorRate(),
        responseTime: this.getResponseTime(),
        userCount: this.getUserCount(),
        conversionRate: this.getConversionRate()
      },
      health: this.calculateReleaseHealth(),
      alerts: this.checkForAnomalies(),
      recommendation: this.getRolloutRecommendation()
    };
  }

  calculateReleaseHealth() {
    const checks = [
      this.metrics.errorRate < 0.1,
      this.metrics.responseTime < 2000,
      this.metrics.conversionRate > -5,
      this.metrics.userCount > 0
    ];

    const healthScore = (checks.filter(Boolean).length / checks.length) * 100;
    return healthScore > 80 ? 'Healthy' : 'Degraded';
  }
}

Best Practices

✅ DO

• Plan releases with clear timeline and milestones
• Communicate early and often with stakeholders
• Test thoroughly in staging environment
• Use phased rollout to reduce risk
• Monitor metrics continuously during rollout
• Have clear rollback procedure
• Document all changes and decisions
• Conduct post-release review
• Include support team in planning
• Plan releases during lower-traffic periods

❌ DON'T

• Release without adequate testing
• Deploy Friday afternoon
• Release without monitoring in place
• Skip UAT/acceptance testing
• Release all major changes together
• Deploy without rollback plan
• Surprise customers with breaking changes
• Release without support team readiness
• Make unreviewed last-minute changes
• Ignore performance or error metrics

Release Planning Tips

• Phased rollouts reduce blast radius from 100% to 5%
• Monitor first 2 hours critically, then every 30 min
• Have incident commander on call during rollout
• Document lessons learned for next release
• Celebrate successful releases with team