Product, Development, Testing: A Complete Checklist for Upgrade and Go-live

During the software development process, especially before preparing to bring a new feature or a fixed release online, it is critical to conduct exhaustive self-tests and pre-launch checks. Below is a comprehensive checklist for go-live upgrades that takes multiple dimensions into account and is designed to help teams ensure software quality, stability, and security:

1、Code quality and build check

• Code review completed
• All code changes have passed unit tests, especially those related to upgrades
• Code changes did not affect existing functionality
• Code changes follow code specifications
• Verify that the build process is error-free, including automated build scripts, dependency management, version control, etc.

2. Functional testing

• All function points pass regression testing
• New functionality passes acceptance testing
• All features tested in production environment

Perform comprehensive functional testing to verify that new and existing functionality is working as expected, ensure that upgrades are not breaking existing functionality, and perform relevant regression testing.

3., performance testing

• Performance testing is complete
• Performance metrics meet SLAs
• Optimized performance bottlenecks

4. Security testing

• Security vulnerability scanning completed (especially security scanning for new code)
• Check that user permission settings are reasonable to prevent data leakage or unauthorized access.
• Confirm that sensitive data is encrypted during storage and transmission.
• Fixed all known security vulnerabilities
• Safety Test Passed

5、Compatibility test

• Compatibility testing is complete
• Compatible with different browsers and operating systems
• Compatible with different devices

6、User experience test

• UX testing is complete
• No problems with navigation and layout
• No problem with responsive design
• Accessibility: Ensure that the application is disability friendly and follows accessible design principles.

7. Requirements and Documentation

• Requirements validation: Confirmation that all requirements have been specified and realized.
• Documentation Updates: Check that user manuals, operating guides, API documentation, etc. have been updated to reflect new features or changes.
• Change Log: Prepare and review a detailed change log, including new features added, issues fixed, known legacy issues, etc.
• Code comments updated to the latest version
• Documentation and Code Consistency

8. Environment, configuration and deployment

• Configuration file updated to the latest version
• Environment Preparation: Ensure that the production environment is ready, including hardware, network, storage, etc.
• Environment Configuration: Check whether the configuration of the production environment is compatible with the new version, and whether the system configuration parameters are correct, including the database, middleware, dependent libraries and so on.
• Dependencies: Checks that all external dependencies (e.g. databases, third-party services) are in place and configured correctly.
• Deployment scripts and processes have been validated to verify the accuracy of the deployment scripts and ensure smooth deployment to production environments.
• Checking application status after deployment

9, monitoring and logging, alarms

• The monitoring configuration has been updated to ensure that the monitoring system has been properly configured to track system status and performance metrics in real time.
• Logging configuration has been updated to ensure logging is sufficiently detailed
• Monitoring and logging is working properly
• Alert notification: Verify the effectiveness of the alert notification mechanism to ensure that team members can receive important alert information in a timely manner.

10. Data migration and backup

• Data Backup: Ensure that all critical data is fully backed up before upgrading.
• Recovery Plan: Develop and validate a data recovery plan to recover data quickly when needed.
• Data migration and backup validation

11. Notification and communication

• Internal notifications: send go-live notifications to team members, including timing, scope of impact, rollback plan, etc.
• Customer notifications (if applicable): sends notifications to users about upcoming features or changes.
• Issue Tracking: Establish an issue tracking mechanism to collect user feedback and respond quickly.

12. Emergency response

• Contingency plan: Develop a detailed contingency plan, including a rollback plan, troubleshooting process, and so on.
• Team Preparedness: Ensure that all relevant personnel have been made aware of the emergency plan and are able to respond quickly if necessary.
• All relevant personnel have been made aware of the emergency response plan
• Emergency response drill completed

13. Compliance with laws and regulations

• Compliance checks on laws and regulations have been completed
• All compliance issues have been resolved

14. Upgrades and approvals

• Time Window: Determine the appropriate time window for the upgrade to ensure minimal impact on the business.
• Progress tracking: Continuously track the progress of upgrades to ensure that tasks are completed on time.
• Internal Approvals: Complete all necessary internal approval processes.

By checking each of the above lists, it ensures that each step of the go-live upgrade is meticulously arranged and carefully considered, thus minimizing risks, improving the go-live success rate, and reducing failures and losses due to unforeseen problems.

The go-live upgrade checklist listed above is a generic template that you can customize to fit specific project needs and team realities. It's also important to review and update this checklist regularly to ensure that it always reflects the latest best practices and project requirements.