Release Planning Template

Authoritative work items live in Azure DevOps Boards. This document is a planning reference. All features and bug fixes listed here must exist as ADO Features or User Stories with AB#<id> references.

Release information

Field	Value
Release version	[v1.0.0]
Release name	[Codename or phase label, e.g. "Platform (AB#3074)" or "iOS App (AB#3077)"]
Target release date	[Date]
Release manager	[Name]
Development end date	[Date]
Testing start date	[Date]
Release branch	[branch-name]
Sprints included	[YYYY-Q<n>-S<m> through YYYY-Q<n>-S<m>]

Release goals

Primary goals

• [Goal 1]
• [Goal 2]
• [Goal 3]

Secondary goals

• [Goal 1]
• [Goal 2]

Features and enhancements

New features

AB#	Feature	Priority	Status	Owner	Effort
AB#[id]	[Feature title]	[1–4]	[New / Active / Resolved]	[Name]	[Points]

Enhancements

AB#	Enhancement	Priority	Status	Owner	Effort
AB#[id]	[Enhancement title]	[1–4]	[New / Active / Resolved]	[Name]	[Points]

Bug fixes

AB#	Bug	Severity	Status	Owner	Target sprint
AB#[id]	[Bug title]	[Critical / High / Medium / Low]	[Active / Resolved]	[Name]	YYYY-Q<n>-S<m>

Success criteria

• [ ] All Priority 1 and Priority 2 features completed and AC verified in ADO.
• [ ] No Critical or High-severity bugs open at release time.
• [ ] Performance benchmarks met (response time targets defined in ADR or Story AC).
• [ ] Security review completed.
• [ ] Documentation updated in docs/.
• [ ] User acceptance testing passed.
• [ ] Deployment scripts tested against the staging environment.
• [ ] Rollback procedure verified.

Release schedule

Development phase

Milestone	Sprint	Date
Development start	YYYY-Q<n>-S<m>	[Date]
Feature freeze	YYYY-Q<n>-S<m>	[Date]
Development end	YYYY-Q<n>-S<m>	[Date]

Testing phase

Test type	Sprint	Dates
System testing	YYYY-Q<n>-S<m>	[Start] — [End]
User acceptance testing	YYYY-Q<n>-S<m>	[Start] — [End]
Performance testing	YYYY-Q<n>-S<m>	[Start] — [End]
Security testing	YYYY-Q<n>-S<m>	[Start] — [End]

Release phase

Milestone	Date
Release candidate	[Date]
Production deployment	[Date]
Go-live	[Date]

Risk assessment

High-risk items

Risk	Impact	Probability	Mitigation	Owner
[Risk]	High	Medium	[Strategy]	[Name]

Dependencies

AB#	Dependency	Status	Owner	Required by
AB#[id]	[Dependency description]	[Pending / Complete]	[Name]	[Date]

Quality gates

Code quality

• [ ] Code review: 100% of merged PRs reviewed.
• [ ] Test coverage: meet or exceed target defined in ADR or platform standard.
• [ ] Static analysis: no high-severity issues.
• [ ] Security scan: no Critical vulnerabilities (Snyk + CodeQL).

Performance

• [ ] Load testing completed.
• [ ] API response time meets target (defined in Story AC).
• [ ] Database queries reviewed for N+1 and index coverage.

Documentation

• [ ] User-facing documentation updated.
• [ ] API documentation current.
• [ ] Deployment guide reviewed.
• [ ] Runbook updated if operational procedures changed.

Communication plan

Audience	Frequency	Format	Owner
Internal team	Per sprint	ADO board + standup	Scrum master
Community leadership	Bi-weekly	Summary email or meeting	Product owner
Community members	At release	In-app announcement	Product owner

Rollback plan

• Decision criteria: [Conditions that trigger a rollback, e.g., P1 bug in production with no same-day fix path.]
• Rollback procedure: [Step-by-step: revert deployment, restore DB from backup if schema changed, verify health checks pass.]
• Data recovery: [Point-in-time restore target; confirm backup exists before deploying.]
• Communication: [Who to notify, how, and within what timeframe.]
• Post-rollback verification: [Checks to confirm the rollback is stable before declaring resolved.]

Post-release activities

• [ ] Release retrospective scheduled.
• [ ] ADO velocity and completion metrics recorded.
• [ ] User feedback monitoring in place.
• [ ] Performance monitoring dashboards reviewed.
• [ ] Bug triage process active for P1/P2 issues.
• [ ] ADO items that were deferred moved to next iteration backlog.

Release notes template

# Release [version] — [Release name]

## New features
- [Feature]: [Description]

## Enhancements
- [Enhancement]: [Description]

## Bug fixes
- Fixed: [Description] (AB#[id])

## Technical changes
- [Change]

## Known issues
- [Issue]: [Workaround if available]

## Deployment notes
- [Special instructions]
- [Configuration changes required]

Approval sign-offs

Role	Name	Date
Product owner	[Name]	[Date]
Technical lead	[Name]	[Date]
Release manager	[Name]	[Date]