Release Planning

Position in workflow: v0.7 Implementation Loop → v0.8 Release Planning → v0.8 Runbook Creation

Consumes

This skill requires prior work from v0.7 Implementation Loop and v0.6-v0.9:

EPIC-* completed entries (from v0.7 Implementation Loop) — Finished work packages define what's being released; must have State=Complete, all TEST- passing
TEST-* test entries (from v0.7 Test Planning) — All TEST- must pass in staging before release criteria can be met
API-* endpoint contracts (referenced in EPIC Context & IDs) — Define SLA and performance baselines for release criteria
ENV-* environment specifications (from v0.6 Environment Setup) — Local/CI/CD/production configurations inform DEP- entries for each environment
ARC-* architecture decisions (from v0.6 Architecture Design) — System structure (monolith, microservices, deployment topology) drives environment setup
TECH-* technology stack (from v0.5 Technical Stack Selection) — Technology choices inform infrastructure requirements and deployment tooling
RISK-* high-priority entries (from v0.5 Risk Discovery) — High RISK- must be mitigated or explicitly accepted before release
KPI-* metrics (from v0.3 and v0.9) — Target KPI values inform monitoring baselines and rollback thresholds

This skill assumes v0.7 Implementation is complete with all EPIC- entries marked Complete and all TEST- passing.

Produces

This skill creates/updates:

DEP-* entries (deployment specifications, environment/criteria/rollback/validation types) — Release readiness checklist with environment configs, go/no-go criteria, rollback triggers and thresholds, post-deploy validation steps
Release readiness checklist — Pre-deploy validation matrix showing which DEP- criteria must be met before release proceeds
Rollback decision tree — Mapping of DEP- rollback triggers to execution procedures and escalation paths (feeds v0.8 Runbook Creation)

All DEP- entries are operational contracts, not confidence-based. They are:

Environment-specific (each environment from staging to production has defined configuration)
Verifiable (each criterion has a concrete check or metric threshold)
Enforceable (release stops if DEP- criteria not met)
Traceable (each DEP- links to EPIC-, TEST-, API-, KPI- that validate it)

Example DEP- entries:

markdown

DEP-001: Production Environment Configuration
Type: Environment
Stage: Pre-deploy

Description: AWS production environment setup for application
Name: production
Infrastructure: AWS us-east-1, ECS Fargate, RDS PostgreSQL
Configuration:
  - NODE_ENV=production
  - LOG_LEVEL=info
  - RATE_LIMIT=100/min
  - METRICS_COLLECTION=enabled
Secrets: AWS Secrets Manager, rotated monthly
Access: DevOps team (deploy), On-call (read-only access)

Linked IDs: ARC-001 (monolith structure), TECH-005 (AWS)

---

DEP-002: All Tests Pass in Staging
Type: Criteria
Stage: Pre-deploy

Description: Complete test suite must pass in staging environment before production release
Requirement: All TEST- entries pass with >95% success rate, including smoke tests and E2E tests
Verification: CI/CD pipeline reports green; test report generated and reviewed
Blocker: Yes — Release cannot proceed if this fails
Owner: QA Lead

Linked IDs: TEST-001 to TEST-050 (from EPIC-01 through EPIC-07)

---

DEP-003: Error Rate Rollback Trigger
Type: Rollback
Stage: Post-deploy

Description: Automatic rollback if error rate exceeds baseline post-deployment
Trigger: 5xx error rate exceeds pre-deployment baseline
Threshold: >2% of requests for 5 minutes (currently 0.5% baseline from MON-001)
Procedure:
  1. Alert on-call engineer (PagerDuty)
  2. Pause traffic to new version
  3. Revert to pre-deploy git tag
  4. Investigate root cause
Notification: #incidents Slack, PagerDuty, Engineering Lead

Linked IDs: MON-001 (error rate metric), RUN-002 (rollback procedure), API-001–020 (endpoints affected)

---

DEP-004: Post-Deployment Smoke Tests
Type: Validation
Stage: Post-deploy

Description: Automated smoke tests to verify critical user journeys work post-deployment
Check: All critical UJ- (UJ-000, UJ-001, UJ-005, UJ-010) complete successfully
Method: Automated (tests/e2e/smoke.spec.ts) + manual spot-check
Success Criteria: All journeys complete <2 seconds, no auth failures, data persists
Escalation: If smoke tests fail, execute DEP-003 rollback and investigate

Linked IDs: UJ-000/001/005/010 (critical journeys), TEST-050 (E2E suite)

Core Concept: Release as Contract

A release is not "code that works locally." It is a contract between development and operations—a formal handoff that includes everything needed to deploy, validate, and recover.

Release Components

Component	Purpose	Output
Deployment Environment	Where code runs	DEP- (environment config)
Release Criteria	What must be true to deploy	DEP- (checklist)
Rollback Triggers	When to revert	DEP- (conditions)
Validation Steps	How to verify success	DEP- (post-deploy checks)

Execution

Inventory completed EPICs
- Which EPIC- entries are "Complete"?
- What API-, DBT-, FEA- are included in this release?
Define deployment environments
- Staging, Production, Preview
- Environment-specific configurations
- Secrets management approach
Establish release criteria
- All TEST- pass in staging
- Performance baselines met (from MON-)
- No critical RISK- blockers
- Security review complete
Define rollback triggers
- Error rate thresholds
- Latency thresholds
- User-reported critical issues
- Data integrity concerns
Document validation steps
- Post-deployment smoke tests
- Key journey verification (UJ-)
- Metric baseline confirmation
Create DEP- entries with full traceability

DEP- Output Template

DEP-XXX: [Deployment Item Title]
Type: [Environment | Criteria | Rollback | Validation | Step]
Stage: [Pre-deploy | Deploy | Post-deploy | Rollback]

Description: [What this deployment item covers]

For Environment Type:
  Name: [staging | production | preview]
  Infrastructure: [Cloud provider, region, resources]
  Configuration: [Environment-specific settings]
  Secrets: [How secrets are managed]
  Access: [Who can deploy, who can access]

For Criteria Type:
  Requirement: [What must be true]
  Verification: [How to check this]
  Blocker: [Yes | No] — Does failure block deploy?
  Owner: [Who verifies]

For Rollback Type:
  Trigger: [What condition initiates rollback]
  Threshold: [Specific metric or condition]
  Procedure: [How to execute rollback]
  Notification: [Who to alert]

For Validation Type:
  Check: [What to verify post-deploy]
  Method: [Manual | Automated | Both]
  Success Criteria: [Expected result]
  Escalation: [What if validation fails]

Linked IDs: [EPIC-XXX, API-XXX, TEST-XXX related]

Example DEP- entries:

DEP-001: Production Environment Configuration
Type: Environment
Stage: Pre-deploy

Description: AWS production environment setup for main application

Name: production
Infrastructure: AWS us-east-1, ECS Fargate, RDS PostgreSQL
Configuration:
  - NODE_ENV=production
  - LOG_LEVEL=info
  - RATE_LIMIT=100/min
Secrets: AWS Secrets Manager, rotated monthly
Access: DevOps team (deploy), On-call (read-only)

Linked IDs: ARC-001, TECH-005

DEP-002: All Tests Pass in Staging
Type: Criteria
Stage: Pre-deploy

Description: Complete test suite must pass in staging environment

Requirement: All TEST- entries pass with >95% success rate
Verification: CI/CD pipeline green status, test report review
Blocker: Yes
Owner: QA Lead

Linked IDs: TEST-001 to TEST-050

DEP-003: Error Rate Rollback Trigger
Type: Rollback
Stage: Post-deploy

Description: Automatic rollback if error rate exceeds threshold

Trigger: 5xx error rate exceeds baseline
Threshold: >2% of requests for 5 minutes
Procedure:
  1. Alert on-call engineer
  2. Pause traffic to new version (if canary)
  3. Revert to previous known-good version
  4. Investigate root cause
Notification: #incidents Slack, PagerDuty

Linked IDs: MON-001, RUN-005

Environment Progression

Stage	Environment	Purpose	Gate
1	Development	Engineer testing	Tests pass locally
2	Staging	Integration testing	All TEST- pass
3	Preview	Stakeholder review	Sign-off from PM
4	Production	Live users	All DEP- criteria met

Release Criteria Categories

Category	Examples	Priority
Functional	Tests pass, features work	Must-have
Performance	Latency <200ms, throughput >100rps	Must-have
Security	No critical vulns, secrets rotated	Must-have
Operational	Runbooks ready, monitoring active	Should-have
Documentation	Release notes, API docs updated	Should-have

Rollback Strategy Patterns

Pattern	When to Use	Complexity
Blue-Green	Need instant rollback, can afford 2x infra	Medium
Canary	Gradual rollout, catch issues early	High
Rolling	Zero-downtime, standard approach	Low
Feature Flags	Decouple deploy from release	Medium

Anti-Patterns

Pattern	Signal	Fix
Deploy and pray	No validation steps defined	Add DEP- validation entries
Manual everything	No automation, error-prone	Automate repeatable steps
No rollback plan	"We'll figure it out"	Define triggers and procedures upfront
Environment drift	Staging doesn't match production	Infrastructure as code, sync configs
Missing criteria	"It works on my machine"	Formal DEP- criteria checklist
Unclear ownership	No one knows who approves	Assign owner to each DEP-

Quality Gates

Before proceeding to Runbook Creation:

All deployment environments documented (DEP- Environment type)
Release criteria defined with clear blockers (DEP- Criteria type)
Rollback triggers specified with thresholds (DEP- Rollback type)
Post-deploy validation steps defined (DEP- Validation type)
Each DEP- entry has an owner
Criteria trace back to EPIC-, TEST-, API- IDs

Downstream Connections

Consumer	What It Uses	Example
Runbook Creation	DEP- rollback procedures become runbook inputs	DEP-003 → RUN-005
Monitoring Setup	DEP- thresholds inform alerting	DEP-003 (2% error) → MON-001
v0.9 GTM Strategy	Release readiness gates launch	All DEP- met → GTM-001
EPIC- Future Releases	DEP- becomes template for next release	DEP-001 reused

Detailed References

Environment configuration examples: See references/environment-examples.md
DEP- entry template: See assets/dep-template.md
Rollback procedure guide: See references/rollback-guide.md

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