End to End Release Management

I've done releases that went perfectly. I've also done releases where everything broke at 2am and we spent the weekend fixing it.

The difference isn't luck — it's process. Here's how I manage releases end-to-end.

The Goal

A good release process should:

  • Ship value to users regularly
  • Minimize risk of breaking things
  • Be predictable and repeatable
  • Not require heroics or late nights

If your releases are stressful, your process is broken.

Phase 1: Planning

Before any code is written:

Define what's in the release

  • Clear scope with acceptance criteria
  • Dependencies identified
  • Risks called out

Set the timeline

  • Code complete date
  • Testing window
  • Deploy date
  • Buffer for unexpected issues

Identify owners

  • Who's responsible for each component?
  • Who makes the go/no-go decision?
  • Who's on-call during and after deploy?

I use a simple release checklist that everyone fills out before we commit to a release date.

Phase 2: Development

During development:

Feature branches Each feature gets its own branch. Merged to main only when complete and tested.

Code review Every change gets reviewed. No exceptions. Catches bugs early and spreads knowledge.

Automated tests Unit tests, integration tests, and at minimum smoke tests. If it's not tested, it's not done.

Feature flags For risky features, ship behind a flag. Deploy the code, then enable gradually.

Regular integration Merge to main daily if possible. Long-lived branches cause merge hell.

Phase 3: Testing

Before release:

QA pass

  • Happy path testing
  • Edge cases
  • Regression testing for affected areas

Performance testing For significant changes, verify it doesn't slow things down.

Security review For sensitive features, get security eyes on it.

Staging environment Test in an environment that mirrors production. If you only test locally, you'll have surprises.

User acceptance testing (UAT) For major features, get stakeholders to verify it meets their needs.

Phase 4: Deployment

The actual release:

Pre-deploy checklist

  • All tests passing
  • Staging verified
  • Rollback plan ready
  • Monitoring dashboards open
  • On-call people notified

Deploy in low-traffic windows If possible, deploy when fewer users are affected. Not at 5pm on Friday.

Gradual rollout

  • Deploy to a small percentage first
  • Monitor for errors
  • Expand if healthy

Smoke test production Immediately after deploy, verify critical paths work.

Communication Let stakeholders know the release is live. Update release notes.

Phase 5: Post-Release

After the release:

Monitor Watch error rates, latency, and key metrics for at least 24 hours.

Collect feedback Are users experiencing issues? Is the feature working as expected?

Post-mortem (if needed) If something went wrong, understand why. No blame — focus on preventing recurrence. (See Post-Mortem Analysis: Investigating a Website Outage for a practical example.)

Clean up Remove feature flags that are fully rolled out. Close release tickets. Update documentation.

My Release Checklist

I use a simple checklist for every release:

## Pre-Release
- [ ] All features complete and merged
- [ ] All tests passing
- [ ] Code reviewed and approved
- [ ] Staging tested and verified
- [ ] Release notes written
- [ ] Rollback plan documented
- [ ] On-call scheduled

## Deploy
- [ ] Low-traffic window selected
- [ ] Monitoring dashboards open
- [ ] Deploy to canary/small percentage
- [ ] Smoke tests passing
- [ ] Expand to full rollout

## Post-Deploy
- [ ] Error rates normal
- [ ] Key metrics healthy
- [ ] Stakeholders notified
- [ ] Feature flags cleaned up
- [ ] Post-mortem scheduled (if issues)

Common Mistakes

Skipping staging "It works on my machine" doesn't count. Test in production-like environment.

No rollback plan If you can't undo the release quickly, you're one bug away from a disaster.

Deploying everything at once Big bang releases are risky. Smaller, more frequent releases are safer.

Friday deployments If it breaks, you're working the weekend. Deploy Monday-Thursday.

No monitoring If you don't know it's broken, you can't fix it. Have alerts for critical paths.

Bottom line: Release management isn't glamorous, but it's the difference between smooth operations and firefighting. Plan properly, test thoroughly, deploy carefully, monitor constantly. Build the process once, then follow it every time.