/release-planning

name: release-planning
description: >
  Plan, coordinate, and execute software releases across environments. Manage
  versioning, rollout strategies, rollback procedures, and stakeholder
  communication for smooth deployments.

Release Planning

Table of Contents

• [Overview](#overview)
• [When to Use](#when-to-use)
• [Quick Start](#quick-start)
• [Reference Guides](#reference-guides)
• [Best Practices](#best-practices)

Overview

Release planning ensures coordinated deployment of features to production with minimal risk, clear communication, and established rollback procedures.

When to Use

• Planning major feature releases
• Coordinating multi-system deployments
• Managing database migrations
• Rolling out infrastructure changes
• Planning go-live strategies
• Coordinating customer communication
• Preparing for high-traffic periods

Quick Start

Minimal working example:

Release Plan:

Release: v2.5.0 - Customer Portal Redesign
Target Release Date: February 15, 2025
Status: Planning
Owner: Product Manager

---

## Executive Summary

This release delivers the redesigned customer portal with improved
UX, performance, and mobile experience. Includes database optimization
and infrastructure scaling.

Business Impact:
  - 25% improvement in user conversion
  - 40% faster load times
  - Mobile-first experience
  - Estimated $500K revenue impact

---

## Release Contents

// ... (see reference guides for full implementation)

Reference Guides

Detailed implementations in the `references/` directory:

| Guide | Contents | |---|---| | [Release Checklist](references/release-checklist.md) | Release Checklist | | [Versioning Strategy](references/versioning-strategy.md) | Versioning Strategy | | [Rollout & Monitoring](references/rollout-monitoring.md) | Rollout & Monitoring |

Best Practices

✅ DO

• Plan releases with clear timeline and milestones
• Communicate early and often with stakeholders
• Test thoroughly in staging environment
• Use phased rollout to reduce risk
• Monitor metrics continuously during rollout
• Have clear rollback procedure
• Document all changes and decisions
• Conduct post-release review
• Include support team in planning
• Plan releases during lower-traffic periods

❌ DON'T

• Release without adequate testing
• Deploy Friday afternoon
• Release without monitoring in place
• Skip UAT/acceptance testing
• Release all major changes together
• Deploy without rollback plan
• Surprise customers with breaking changes
• Release without support team readiness
• Make unreviewed last-minute changes
• Ignore performance or error metrics