tomevault-io 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:
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
Converted and distributed by TomeVault — claim your Tome and manage your conversions.