Deployment Strategist
When to Use
- Choose a rollout pattern such as canary, blue-green, rolling, shadow, or feature-flagged release
- Write production rollout, cutover, rollback, or recovery plans
- Coordinate deploy strategy for schema changes, migrations, multi-region releases, or high-risk launches
- Define entry/exit criteria, health metrics, and go/no-go checks for phased deployment
- Brief stakeholders on release risk, blast radius, and contingency plans
When NOT to Use
- Implement CI/CD YAML, GitOps sync, or build systems →
devops
- Provision VPCs, clusters, networking, or Terraform modules →
infrastructure-engineer
- Add pipeline security gates or supply-chain controls →
devsecops
- Manage multi-team program milestones and RAID logs →
technical-program-manager
- Write cross-service architecture ADRs before implementation →
senior-system-architecture
Related skills
| Need |
Skill |
| Pipeline implementation, GitOps, on-call |
devops |
| Cloud networking, K8s clusters, IaC |
infrastructure-engineer |
| Release gates, canary metrics for AI products |
ai-lead-ops |
| Secure pipeline and supply chain |
devsecops |
| App feature design and migrations in code |
senior-fullstack-developer |
| Cross-team milestones, RAID, launch council |
technical-program-manager |
| Architecture review before major migration |
senior-system-architecture |
| Launch and customer messaging |
communication-lead |
| K8s deploy execution and cluster ops |
cluster-deployment-engineer |
Core Workflows
1. Strategy selection
Decision inputs:
| Factor |
Question |
| Blast radius |
How many users affected if deploy fails? |
| State |
Stateless vs session-sticky vs data migration |
| Observability |
Can you measure canary health in <5 min? |
| Rollback speed |
RTO target (seconds vs hours) |
| Compliance |
Change freeze, audit trail, approval depth |
Default recommendations:
| Profile |
Strategy |
| Stateless API, good metrics |
Canary or rolling + feature flags |
| Major version, schema change |
Blue-green or parallel stack + phased traffic |
| Mobile / app store |
Phased rollout by % users; no instant rollback |
| ML model + prompt |
Shadow → canary → full; version pins |
| Data warehouse |
Expand-contract migrations; backfill before cutover |
See references/strategy_selection.md for decision tree and trade-off matrix.
2. Rollout plan document
Produce a plan containing:
- Objective — what changes, for whom, by when
- Scope — services, regions, tenants, feature flags
- Phases — dev → staging → prod canary → prod 100%
- Entry/exit criteria per phase (metrics, tests, approvals)
- Rollback — trigger conditions, owner, steps, data implications
- Comms — internal channels, customer status page if needed
- Schedule — timezone-aware; avoid peak and freeze windows
See references/rollout_planning.md for template and stakeholder RACI.
3. Environment and promotion design
- Minimum: dev, staging, prod (prod-like staging mandatory for risky changes)
- Optional: preview per PR, perf, disaster-recovery drill env
- Promotion = new artifact digest, not rebuild; same artifact across stages
- Config via environment overlays; secrets from vault
See references/environments_promotion.md for topology patterns and config rules.
4. Database and dependency coordination
Expand-contract pattern for schema:
- Expand: deploy code tolerant of old and new schema
- Migrate data
- Contract: remove old paths in later deploy
Never drop columns or rename in same release as code depends on new shape without dual-write.
See references/strategy_selection.md for coupled release patterns.
5. Rollback and recovery
| Rollback type |
When |
| Fast |
Redeploy previous artifact digest; flip traffic |
| Config |
Revert feature flag or config map |
| Data |
Restore backup / run down migration (slow, risky) |
Define rollback triggers before deploy: error rate, SLO burn, failed smoke, manual abort.
See references/rollback_recovery.md for playbooks and drill cadence.
6. Risk, compliance, and sign-off
- Map change to risk tier (low / medium / high)
- High: CAB or change ticket, maintenance window, extra approvers
- Document blast radius and tested rollback
- Post-deploy verification window with named owner
See references/risk_compliance.md for tier definitions and evidence list.
When to load references
- Choose strategy →
references/strategy_selection.md
- Rollout plan template →
references/rollout_planning.md
- Environments →
references/environments_promotion.md
- Rollback →
references/rollback_recovery.md
- Change control →
references/risk_compliance.md
1---2name: deployment-strategist3description: Guides deployment and release strategy—choosing rollout patterns (rolling, blue-green, canary, feature flags), environment topology, promotion paths, blast-radius control, rollback design, change windows, and cross-team rollout plans for web, API, data, and ML workloads. Use when planning a production release, comparing deployment approaches, writing a rollout or cutover plan, designing multi-region or zero-downtime migrations, coordinating schema changes with deploys, or preparing executive/stakeholder release briefs (for launch messaging and customer comms copy, use communication-lead)—not for multi-team program tracking (technical-program-manager), implementing CI YAML (devops), Terraform/VPC design (infrastructure-engineer), security scan gates (devsecops), or upfront multi-service architecture and ADRs (senior-system-architecture). For Helm/Kustomize apply, cluster upgrades, and in-cluster rollout status, use cluster-deployment-engineer.4---56# Deployment Strategist78## When to Use910- Choose a rollout pattern such as canary, blue-green, rolling, shadow, or feature-flagged release11- Write production rollout, cutover, rollback, or recovery plans12- Coordinate deploy strategy for schema changes, migrations, multi-region releases, or high-risk launches13- Define entry/exit criteria, health metrics, and go/no-go checks for phased deployment14- Brief stakeholders on release risk, blast radius, and contingency plans1516## When NOT to Use1718- Implement CI/CD YAML, GitOps sync, or build systems → `devops`19- Provision VPCs, clusters, networking, or Terraform modules → `infrastructure-engineer`20- Add pipeline security gates or supply-chain controls → `devsecops`21- Manage multi-team program milestones and RAID logs → `technical-program-manager`22- Write cross-service architecture ADRs before implementation → `senior-system-architecture`2324## Related skills2526| Need | Skill |27|---|---|28| Pipeline implementation, GitOps, on-call | `devops` |29| Cloud networking, K8s clusters, IaC | `infrastructure-engineer` |30| Release gates, canary metrics for AI products | `ai-lead-ops` |31| Secure pipeline and supply chain | `devsecops` |32| App feature design and migrations in code | `senior-fullstack-developer` |33| Cross-team milestones, RAID, launch council | `technical-program-manager` |34| Architecture review before major migration | `senior-system-architecture` |35| Launch and customer messaging | `communication-lead` |36| K8s deploy execution and cluster ops | `cluster-deployment-engineer` |3738## Core Workflows3940### 1. Strategy selection4142**Decision inputs:**4344| Factor | Question |45|---|---|46| Blast radius | How many users affected if deploy fails? |47| State | Stateless vs session-sticky vs data migration |48| Observability | Can you measure canary health in <5 min? |49| Rollback speed | RTO target (seconds vs hours) |50| Compliance | Change freeze, audit trail, approval depth |5152**Default recommendations:**5354| Profile | Strategy |55|---|---|56| Stateless API, good metrics | Canary or rolling + feature flags |57| Major version, schema change | Blue-green or parallel stack + phased traffic |58| Mobile / app store | Phased rollout by % users; no instant rollback |59| ML model + prompt | Shadow → canary → full; version pins |60| Data warehouse | Expand-contract migrations; backfill before cutover |6162**See `references/strategy_selection.md` for decision tree and trade-off matrix.**6364### 2. Rollout plan document6566Produce a plan containing:67681. **Objective** — what changes, for whom, by when692. **Scope** — services, regions, tenants, feature flags703. **Phases** — dev → staging → prod canary → prod 100%714. **Entry/exit criteria** per phase (metrics, tests, approvals)725. **Rollback** — trigger conditions, owner, steps, data implications736. **Comms** — internal channels, customer status page if needed747. **Schedule** — timezone-aware; avoid peak and freeze windows7576**See `references/rollout_planning.md` for template and stakeholder RACI.**7778### 3. Environment and promotion design7980- Minimum: dev, staging, prod (prod-like staging mandatory for risky changes)81- Optional: preview per PR, perf, disaster-recovery drill env82- Promotion = new artifact digest, not rebuild; same artifact across stages83- Config via environment overlays; secrets from vault8485**See `references/environments_promotion.md` for topology patterns and config rules.**8687### 4. Database and dependency coordination8889**Expand-contract pattern for schema:**90911. Expand: deploy code tolerant of old and new schema922. Migrate data933. Contract: remove old paths in later deploy9495Never drop columns or rename in same release as code depends on new shape without dual-write.9697**See `references/strategy_selection.md` for coupled release patterns.**9899### 5. Rollback and recovery100101| Rollback type | When |102|---|---|103| Fast | Redeploy previous artifact digest; flip traffic |104| Config | Revert feature flag or config map |105| Data | Restore backup / run down migration (slow, risky) |106107Define **rollback triggers** before deploy: error rate, SLO burn, failed smoke, manual abort.108109**See `references/rollback_recovery.md` for playbooks and drill cadence.**110111### 6. Risk, compliance, and sign-off112113- Map change to risk tier (low / medium / high)114- High: CAB or change ticket, maintenance window, extra approvers115- Document blast radius and tested rollback116- Post-deploy verification window with named owner117118**See `references/risk_compliance.md` for tier definitions and evidence list.**119120## When to load references121122- **Choose strategy** → `references/strategy_selection.md`123- **Rollout plan template** → `references/rollout_planning.md`124- **Environments** → `references/environments_promotion.md`125- **Rollback** → `references/rollback_recovery.md`126- **Change control** → `references/risk_compliance.md`
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