1. Requirements and release-critical paths 1. Requirements and release-critical paths
Can the team name the behaviours this release must preserve and the acceptance criteria for changed behaviour?
Look for: a change summary, critical user journeys, dependencies, and agreed acceptance criteria.
Choose a rating — Requirements and release-critical paths Choose a rating 0 — Unknown or missing 1 — Partial; important gaps remain 2 — Current evidence; gaps have owners 3 — Current evidence; failure and recovery paths checked Not rated — 0 / 1 / 2 / 3
Evidence, owner, and next action (optional) Notes / owner / next action: ______________________________
2. Test coverage based on product risk 2. Test coverage based on product risk
Does current evidence cover the important risks, including permissions, data integrity, integrations, and failure paths?
Look for: a risk-to-test map, exploratory notes, and explicit gaps. A coverage percentage alone is insufficient.
Choose a rating — Test coverage based on product risk Choose a rating 0 — Unknown or missing 1 — Partial; important gaps remain 2 — Current evidence; gaps have owners 3 — Current evidence; failure and recovery paths checked Not rated — 0 / 1 / 2 / 3
Evidence, owner, and next action (optional) Notes / owner / next action: ______________________________
3. Automation reliability 3. Automation reliability
Do automated checks run independently with controlled data and trustworthy assertions?
Look for: first-run results, reproducible failures, stable fixtures, and diagnostic artifacts.
Choose a rating — Automation reliability Choose a rating 0 — Unknown or missing 1 — Partial; important gaps remain 2 — Current evidence; gaps have owners 3 — Current evidence; failure and recovery paths checked Not rated — 0 / 1 / 2 / 3
Evidence, owner, and next action (optional) Notes / owner / next action: ______________________________
4. Flaky-test management 4. Flaky-test management
Are intermittent failures investigated rather than hidden behind retries?
Look for: owners, causes, quarantine expiry dates, and replacement evidence while a check is excluded.
Choose a rating — Flaky-test management Choose a rating 0 — Unknown or missing 1 — Partial; important gaps remain 2 — Current evidence; gaps have owners 3 — Current evidence; failure and recovery paths checked Not rated — 0 / 1 / 2 / 3
Evidence, owner, and next action (optional) Notes / owner / next action: ______________________________
5. CI/CD quality signals 5. CI/CD quality signals
Do pipeline gates provide timely evidence for the actual release candidate?
Look for: tested artifact identity, meaningful gates, failure triage, and visible exceptions.
Choose a rating — CI/CD quality signals Choose a rating 0 — Unknown or missing 1 — Partial; important gaps remain 2 — Current evidence; gaps have owners 3 — Current evidence; failure and recovery paths checked Not rated — 0 / 1 / 2 / 3
Evidence, owner, and next action (optional) Notes / owner / next action: ______________________________
6. Defect and release-decision ownership 6. Defect and release-decision ownership
Is someone accountable for unresolved defects and the decision to accept remaining release risk?
Look for: severity rationale, mitigation, a decision owner, and an explicit go/no-go record.
Choose a rating — Defect and release-decision ownership Choose a rating 0 — Unknown or missing 1 — Partial; important gaps remain 2 — Current evidence; gaps have owners 3 — Current evidence; failure and recovery paths checked Not rated — 0 / 1 / 2 / 3
Evidence, owner, and next action (optional) Notes / owner / next action: ______________________________
7. Production observability 7. Production observability
Can the team detect a user-facing regression after deployment and identify who will respond?
Look for: relevant logs, metrics, alerts, business-flow checks, and a named responder.
Choose a rating — Production observability Choose a rating 0 — Unknown or missing 1 — Partial; important gaps remain 2 — Current evidence; gaps have owners 3 — Current evidence; failure and recovery paths checked Not rated — 0 / 1 / 2 / 3
Evidence, owner, and next action (optional) Notes / owner / next action: ______________________________
8. Rollback and incident readiness 8. Rollback and incident readiness
Can the team recover from this change, including data or schema changes that may not be reversible?
Look for: tested recovery steps, compatibility constraints, rollback triggers, and incident responsibilities.
Choose a rating — Rollback and incident readiness Choose a rating 0 — Unknown or missing 1 — Partial; important gaps remain 2 — Current evidence; gaps have owners 3 — Current evidence; failure and recovery paths checked Not rated — 0 / 1 / 2 / 3
Evidence, owner, and next action (optional) Notes / owner / next action: ______________________________
This is a discussion aid, not a validated risk model or release authorization. Red: any 0. Amber: any 1, or a total below 20. Green: every area at least 2 and total at least 20. Your product’s risks can override any score.
