Production Deployment

Frequency of deployments

Production deployments are carefully timed events that follow extensive testing and validation in a staging area. Deployments take place only after the software has been rigorously tested, any issues identified have been addressed and stakeholder approvals have been obtained. The frequency of the deployments is tailored to match the needs of clients and the business, ensuring that each deployment is scheduled to minimise disruptions.

Iterative approach

Agile’s focus on incremental development leads to more frequent production deployments compared with traditional methodologies. We aim for potentially shippable increments every two weeks (end of each sprint), resulting in regular production deployments.

Release planning

Major releases are scheduled according to the project's release plan. Youtap consistently adheres to this strategy across all client engagements.

Continuous deployment

Our continuous deployment pipelines are designed to support multiple deployments daily, enabling the swift and seamless release of code changes as soon as they are ready.

Accountability

• Product Owner – Decides on the content and timing of deployments, prioritising features and changes based on business value and client needs

• Development team – Implements features, following best practices for coding, testing and integration to ensure readiness for production

• QA team – Works closely with the developers to ensure software quality and stability, conducting regression tests to maintain functionality

• DevOps team – Manages technical deployment aspects, including configuring deployment pipelines, managing infrastructure and automating deployment processes

Release Sign-off

Change Advisory Board

A Change Advisory Board (CAB) is an internal Youtap group responsible for assessing and approving changes to the Production environment. It consists of a Change Sponsor, Change Manager and subject-matter experts (SME). The proposed changes are assessed as follows:

• Impact analysis – Evaluates potential impact on production systems, services and users

• Risk assessment – Identifies risks such as service disruptions, data loss and security vulnerabilities

• Resource requirements – Determines the resources and effort required to implement the change

• Business impact – Assesses the business value and alignment with organisational goals

• The CAB meets regularly to review and approve change requests, with meeting frequency determined by the volume and complexity of changes.

• All change requests, CAB meeting minutes, decisions, and actions should be documented and maintained for audit, compliance, and reference purposes.

Go/No-Go (Client Facing)

Formal decision-making process to determine whether to proceed with the deployment (Go) or postpone it (No-Go). This enables the project teams and Clients to make well-informed decisions.

• Successful completion of testing to ensure quality and stability of the deliverable.

• Confirmation that all critical defects have been addressed, and the product meets the required quality standards.

• Confirmation of a stable and working production environment.

• Confirmation that all necessary preparations, testing, and approvals have been completed.

• Stakeholder alignment and consensus regarding the decision to proceed and reviewing any concerns.

• Assignment of responsibilities and timelines for implementing follow-up actions.

• Summary of the decision reached during the meeting (Go or No-Go).

• Confirmation of next steps and communication plan for informing stakeholders of the decision.

Involvement and Communication

• Clear documentation of deployment processes and procedures is essential for ensuring consistency and reliability during deployments.

• It's important to involve operations and support teams who are responsible for monitoring the live production environment and responding to any issues that may occur post-deployment.

• Project Coordinator will schedule a retrospective (in the next 5days or so), to capture the best practices and improve on lessons learnt during the deployment.