Release Testing Workflow
中文版： 见技能 release-testing-workflow。
End-to-end release testing (1–2 weeks before release through post-release). Prompts: see reference.md and this directory's prompts/.
When to Use
- User mentions release testing, Go/No-Go, or release readiness
- Need timeline: T-14 planning → T-7 feature freeze → T-5–T-4 specialized testing → T-3 RC → T-2 quality assessment → T-1 Go/No-Go → T-day release → T+1–T+7 post-release
- Trigger: e.g. “How do we schedule pre-release testing?” or “Go/No-Go checklist”
How to Use
- Check reference.md to find the prompt file for the current step.
- Open the corresponding file in
prompts/, then combine it with the current context (scope, environment, risks, constraints). - Run step by step, and update priorities or gates based on outputs and blockers.
Common Pitfalls
- ❌ Adding features after T-7 → ✅ Feature freeze: only defect fixes; non-critical code freeze
- ❌ Releasing without Go/No-Go → ✅ Release only after gates pass, team alignment, and rollback readiness
- ❌ No post-release monitoring → ✅ T+1 intensive monitoring and fast response; follow incident procedures
Best Practices
- T-14: use test strategy and requirements prompts for release plan and risk assessment
- T-2: use test reporting and test strategy for quality gates and known-issue assessment
- Before deploy: confirm rollback tested, communication plan and support brief ready
- Principle: When in doubt, delay release.
Reference Files
- reference.md — Step-to-prompt file mapping
- prompts/ — English prompt files for this workflow (open the matching
.mdper step and use with context)
Related: daily-testing-workflow-en, sprint-testing-workflow-en.
T-14: Release Planning
☑️ Planning Meeting Checklist
- Meeting preparation
- Confirm participants (Product, Engineering, QA, DevOps) - Prepare meeting agenda - Use prompts: test-strategy, requirements-analysis
- Meeting agenda execution
- Define release scope - Identify high-risk features - Define quality gates - Develop test strategy
☑️ Deliverables Completion Checklist
- Documentation delivery
- Release test plan - Risk assessment document - Environment plan - Regression test scope - Performance test plan
T-10 to T-8: Test Preparation
☑️ Environment Preparation Checklist
- Test environment setup
- Set up pre-production environment - Prepare production-like data - Configure monitoring and logging - Create test accounts - Use prompts: automation-testing, test-strategy
☑️ Test Suite Update Checklist
- Test suite updates
- Update regression test suite - Update performance test scripts - Update security test scenarios - Update accessibility tests - Update visual test baselines
☑️ Readiness Verification Checklist
- Readiness validation
- Critical path automation ready - Regression tests updated - Performance test baseline set - Visual test baseline set
T-7: Feature Freeze & Testing Acceleration
☑️ Feature Freeze Rules Confirmation
- Freeze rules enforcement
- Confirm no new features added - Only allow defect fixes - Non-critical code freeze
☑️ Functional Testing Checklist
- New feature testing
- Test new features - Test modified features - Test critical user journeys - Test integration points - Use prompts: functional-testing, test-case-writing
☑️ Regression Testing Checklist
- Full regression execution
- Execute full automated regression - Execute critical path manual tests - Cross-browser testing - Mobile testing - Use prompts: functional-testing, ai-assisted-testing
☑️ End-to-End Testing Checklist
- E2E test execution
- Test complete user journeys - Test multi-system integration - Verify data flows - Test third-party integrations - Use prompts: functional-testing
T-5 to T-4: Specialized Testing
☑️ Performance Testing Checklist
- Performance test execution
- Load testing - Stress testing - Spike testing - Endurance testing (24h+) - Use prompts: performance-testing
- Performance metrics analysis
- Analyze P95/P99 response times - Check throughput - Analyze error rates - Monitor resource usage
☑️ Security Testing Checklist
- Security test execution
- Vulnerability scanning - Penetration testing - Authentication/authorization testing - Encryption verification - Security headers check - Use prompts: security-testing
☑️ Accessibility Testing Checklist
- Accessibility test execution
- Screen reader testing - Keyboard navigation testing - Contrast checking - ARIA attribute verification - Use prompts: accessibility-testing
☑️ Visual Testing Checklist
- Visual test execution
- Visual regression testing - Cross-browser visual testing - Responsive design testing - UI consistency checking - Use prompts: accessibility-testing
T-3: Release Candidate (RC) Testing
☑️ RC Deployment Checklist
- Release candidate preparation
- Deploy RC to pre-production - Code freeze - Tag version
☑️ Smoke Testing Checklist
- Quick smoke test (1–2 hours)
- Test critical features - Confirm no critical defects - Verify deployment success
☑️ Final Regression Checklist
- Full regression execution
- Execute full automated regression - Execute manual critical path tests - Execute exploratory testing - Use prompts: manual-testing
☑️ Defect Triage Checklist
- Defect handling decisions
- Critical defects: must fix → retest → new RC - High priority: assess risk - Medium/low priority: move to next version
T-2: Quality Assessment
☑️ Quality Metrics Review Checklist
- Test metrics review
- Test execution rate - Test pass rate - Critical/high priority defect count - Test coverage - Performance benchmark achievement - Use prompts: test-reporting, test-strategy
☑️ Quality Gate Check Checklist
- Gate verification
- Critical defects fixed - Regression tests 100% passed - Performance meets SLA - Security scan passed - No unresolved P1/P2 defects - Accessibility compliance
☑️ Risk Assessment Checklist
- Risk analysis
- Known issues and workarounds - Load test performance - Third-party dependency risks - Rollback plan readiness
T-1: Go/No-Go
☑️ Go/No-Go Meeting Checklist
- Meeting preparation
- Confirm participants (Product, Engineering, QA, DevOps, Leadership) - Prepare meeting materials
- Meeting review content
- Test summary - Defect status and trends - Performance test results - Security test results - Known risks - Rollback plan
☑️ GO Decision Criteria Check
- GO conditions verification
- Quality gates passed - No critical unresolved defects - Performance acceptable - Team confident - Rollback plan ready
☑️ NO-GO Risk Identification
- NO-GO conditions check
- Are there critical defects - Did quality gates fail - Are there performance issues - Are there high risks - Does team lack confidence
☑️ Pre-Release Checklist
- Release preparation verification
- Release notes prepared - Deployment runbook ready - Monitoring configured - Rollback plan tested - Support team briefed - Communication plan ready
T-Day: Release Day
☑️ Pre-Deployment Checklist (2–4 hours before)
- Final preparation
- RC final smoke test - Deployment checklist confirmation - Team on-call confirmation - Communication channels ready
☑️ During Deployment Monitoring Checklist
- Real-time monitoring
- Monitor deployment progress - Monitor error logs - Monitor performance metrics - Monitor user feedback
☑️ Post-Deployment Verification Checklist (30–60 min)
- Production smoke test
- Test critical user journeys - Verify authentication/authorization - Test payment functionality - Verify third-party integrations - Check performance
☑️ First 24 Hours Monitoring Checklist
- Continuous monitoring
- Monitor error rate - Monitor response time - Monitor traffic - Monitor support tickets
☑️ Rollback Conditions Check
- Rollback trigger conditions
- Is critical functionality broken - Is there severe performance degradation - Is there data corruption - Are there security vulnerabilities
T+1 to T+7: Post-Release
☑️ Day 1 Checklist
- Intensive monitoring
- Intensive system metrics monitoring - Fast issue response - Collect user feedback - Record discovered issues
☑️ Week 1 Checklist
- Continuous tracking
- Fix post-release defects - Monitor trend changes - Collect user feedback - Prepare hotfix if necessary
☑️ Release Retrospective Checklist
- Retrospective meeting
- Discuss what went well - Identify improvement opportunities - Analyze testing gaps - Create process improvement plan - Use prompts: test-reporting
Target Audience
- QA engineers and developers executing this testing domain in real projects
- Team leads who need structured, reproducible testing outputs
- AI users who need fast, format-ready deliverables for execution and reporting
Not Recommended For
- Pure production incident response without test scope/context
- Decisions requiring legal/compliance sign-off without expert review
- Requests lacking minimum inputs (scope, environment, expected behavior)
Critical Success Factors
- Provide clear scope, environment, and acceptance criteria before generation
- Validate generated outputs against real system constraints before execution
- Keep artifacts traceable (requirements -> test points -> defects -> decisions)
Output Templates and Parsing Scripts
- Template directory:
output-templates/
- template-word.md (Word-friendly structure) - template-excel.tsv (Excel paste-ready) - template-xmind.md (XMind-friendly outline) - template-json.json - template-csv.csv - template-markdown.md
- Parser scripts directory:
scripts/
- Parse (generic): parse_output_formats.py - Parse (per-format): parse_word.py, parse_excel.py, parse_xmind.py, parse_json.py, parse_csv.py, parse_markdown.py - Convert (generic): convert_output_formats.py - Convert (per-format): convert_to_word.py, convert_to_excel.py, convert_to_xmind.py, convert_to_json.py, convert_to_csv.py, convert_to_markdown.py - Batch convert: batch_convert_templates.py (outputs into artifacts/)
Examples:
python3 scripts/parse_json.py output-templates/template-json.json
python3 scripts/parse_markdown.py output-templates/template-markdown.md
python3 scripts/convert_to_json.py output-templates/template-markdown.md
python3 scripts/convert_output_formats.py output-templates/template-json.json --to csv
python3 scripts/batch_convert_templates.py --skip-same