Release checklist when you don't have a dedicated QA team

No dedicated QA doesn't mean skipping quality. It means everyone contributes — and you need a short checklist so nothing gets missed.

For: founders, solo devs, and small squads shipping themselves. Already have QA? They usually own and extend this checklist — this post is a starting baseline, not a replacement for the role.

Key idea: This checklist is a minimum frame; dedicated QA deepens coverage and release judgment.

Before merging to release branch

• PR describes user impact, not just "fix bug"
• DB migrations reviewed — rollback SQL ready?
• New env vars on staging and documented in .env.example
• Minimum smoke (ten-test set) — or at least login + core flow
• No stray debug console.log or wrong feature flags

Sign-off: merging dev + someone else (founder, PM, or pair dev) spends ~15 minutes on staging.

Before production deploy

• Changelog / release note (3–5 lines for future you)
• DB backup or snapshot if migration is risky
• Know the build/version (git sha)
• Internal heads-up: "deploy in ~10 min, possible brief slowness"
• Rollback plan written (template below)

During deploy

• Run migrations in the order your playbook specifies — don't guess
• Watch API logs for the first 5 minutes (5xx spike?)
• Health check /health or equivalent

First 30 minutes after deploy

• Prod smoke with test accounts — not real customers
• Exercise one revenue / conversion flow
• Error tracking (Sentry, logs) — unusual spike?
• Support channel — weird tickets?

Rollback criteria

Golden rule: If money or data feels wrong → roll back first, investigate second.

Template · Five-line rollback plan

1. Revert deploy → image/tag: _______
2. Migration: run down script _______ or restore snapshot _______
3. Verify: smoke #1 login + #3 payment
4. Rollback owner: _______
5. Postmortem within 24h, link incident

When QA isn't staffed yet · Who covers what?

When you hire QA (part-time or full-time), this checklist becomes the baseline — QA adds exploratory depth, regression strategy, and release sign-off.

Related

• Ten smoke tests
• Faster bug reports
• Incident → regression in 30 min

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Print the checklist. Next ship: tick honestly, not performatively.