Testing Checklists and Release Criteria
Release criteria define the conditions that must be met before software can be released to production. Testing checklists support this by providing a systematic set of checks — ensuring that the team has consistently verified all required quality attributes before deployment. Together, they provide a structured quality gate without the bureaucracy of heavy release processes.
Release Criteria Components
- Test completion: All planned tests have been executed; all critical and high-priority defects are resolved
- Coverage metrics: Code coverage meets minimum threshold; all critical user journeys are covered by automated tests
- Performance: Application meets performance SLAs — response time, throughput, error rate — under expected load
- Security: SAST scan has no critical/high severity unresolved findings; known CVEs in dependencies are reviewed
- Accessibility: Automated accessibility scan passes; critical user journeys meet WCAG 2.1 AA
- Documentation: User-facing changes are documented; API changes are reflected in API documentation
Pre-Release Checklist Items
Beyond automated checks, a pre-release checklist captures manual verification: smoke testing in the production-equivalent environment, review of release notes, comms to affected stakeholders, rollback plan confirmed, on-call team notified. Checklists prevent human error in repetitive processes — not as bureaucracy but as cognitive offloading for stressed release teams.