The Release Readiness Checklist: How to Know You're Actually Ready to Ship

Pre-Release Checklist

Before shipping, verify:

• Feature complete and tested (engineering)
• UI/UX reviewed by design (design)
• Acceptance criteria met (testing)
• Performance tested under load (DevOps)
• Security reviewed (security team)
• Monitoring/alerting configured (DevOps)
• Rollback plan documented (engineering)
• Customer communication drafted (marketing)
• Support trained on feature (CS)
• Analytics instrumentation complete (analytics)

Green light: All items checked. Ship. Red light: Any unchecked. Fix before shipping.

Key Takeaways

• Checklist prevents "woops, we forgot to monitor!" post-launch disasters. Discipline prevents crises.
• Ownership clarity: Each team owns their checkbox. No ambiguity.