Documenting how releases happen.
WHY IT MATTERS
Deployment knowledge concentrates in one person, and their absence becomes an outage.
WHAT IT SHOULD CONTAIN
How to build and publish an image How to deploy it How to verify success How to roll back Who to contact
WHAT VERIFICATION SHOULD SPECIFY
Exactly what to check, and what a healthy result looks like.
WHY EXACTLY
Vague instructions produce inconsistent checks.
WHAT THE ROLLBACK SECTION MUST STATE
The command Any database considerations How long it takes
WHY DATABASE CONSIDERATIONS SPECIFICALLY
They determine whether rollback is actually possible.
WHAT ELSE TO DOCUMENT
Where images live Where configuration lives Where secrets come from What monitoring to watch
WHAT TO INCLUDE FOR EMERGENCIES
How to scale to zero How to disable a feature How to put up a maintenance page
WHAT TO TEST
That someone else can follow it, without help.
WHY THAT TEST
It is the only way to know it is complete.
WHERE TO KEEP IT
Version control, alongside the deployment definitions.
WHAT TO UPDATE
It, whenever the process changes.
WHAT TO REVIEW
After every incident, for what was missing.
