Navigating Software Development Milestones: The Gates to a High-Quality Release

?? "Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction, and skillful execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives." – William A. Foster

Why Milestones Matter ??

What separates a chaotic release from a smooth, high-quality one? Is it luck? Hard work? Or is it a well-defined process that ensures each stage is rigorously vetted before moving forward?

In software development, milestones—also known as gates—act as critical checkpoints. These gates ensure that every release is stable, secure, and meets customer expectations before it reaches production. Without them, teams risk delivering half-baked features, missing key validations, and ultimately, breaking user trust.

Adaptability in Milestones ?

Not all release cycles are the same. Some phases may be collapsed into one (e.g., combining First RC and Final RC into a single RC milestone) if the cycle is short. Additionally, automated gates enable faster delivery while maintaining high confidence in the release. The key is to have the necessary checks and balances in place to ship with confidence, aligning with our mission of customer trust and high-quality releases.

The Five Key Milestones ??

Regardless of whether your release cycle lasts days, weeks or months, the following milestones guide teams in delivering quality software consistently:

1?? Code Freeze ??

As software development progresses toward a release, reaching the code freeze gate is a crucial milestone. It marks the point where active feature development ceases, and the focus shifts to stability, performance, and quality assurance. Here are the essential criteria that must be met before declaring a successful code freeze:

? Exit Criteria:

• DART Completed – The Design and Review Tests (DART) ensures thorough test coverage for features, enhancements, and fixes - Look forward to an article on DART with all the details and why it's critical.
• Feature Implementation and Validation – All planned user stories and VoC (Voice of Customer) enhancements must be fully implemented, developer-tested, and documented in the central test management system.
• Automation for Functional and Performance Testing – New test cases should be automated for functional and performance testing, ensuring efficient validation across different environments.
• Defect Resolution – Any internal or customer-reported defects committed during the scope lock phase should be addressed, and validated.
• Early Performance and Scalability Testing – Initial performance and scale tests must be conducted, with any identified issues reported for further analysis.
• Security Compliance – Comprehensive security scans should be completed, and any identified vulnerabilities must be documented and assessed for resolution.
• Automated Regression Testing – A full suite of automated regression tests must be executed to confirm that existing functionality remains intact with the latest changes.

2?? Release Branching ??

Now, the release gets its dedicated branch, separating it from ongoing development work. This prevents new, untested changes from creeping in.

? Exit Criteria:

• Feature Completion and Demo – All pending user stories and Voice of Customer (VoC) enhancements must be demonstrated to the UX and product team. Any unresolved items should be formally reviewed and deferred to a future release.
• Release Branches Cut– The release branching checklist applied and branches cut. What is the Release Branching Checklist? - Let's explore that in an upcoming article
• Stable Release Build – Generate a release build that includes all required components, with any integration issues identified and resolved.
• Validation Queue Clearance – All defects in the validation queue should be verified and closed within the defined 10-day SLA, ensuring a clean state before branching

?? Curious question: How often has a last-minute commit derailed an otherwise perfect release? ??

3?? Release Candidate (RC) ???

Reaching the Release Candidate (RC) milestone is a critical step toward a stable and high-quality software release. At this stage, development transitions from active coding to final validation, ensuring the product is ready for broader testing and stakeholder review.. Depending on the release cycle, there may be multiple RCs, or just one final RC before release.

? Exit Criteria:

• Product and UX Approval – All user stories and VoC improvements have been reviewed and accepted by the Product and UX teams.
• SDET Testing
• Subset testing for stories and CS improvements has been successfully completed.
• Full regression testing including end-to-end scenarios completed.
• Installation and upgrade testing on all supported platforms and configurations completed for both cloud and On-prem.
• Defect Resolution
• All blocker, critical, and regression defects are fixed.
• Any non-regression major, minor, or trivial defects are deferred with proper justification.
• Validation queue is cleared, except for defects reported in the last 48 hours.
• No open defects remain, except those reported within the last 48 hours.
• Security Compliance – All known security vulnerabilities have been addressed and verified.
• Performance Validation – Performance testing for the RC build is completed, and results have been reviewed with stakeholders.
• Internal Cross-Functional Testing – Additional testing has been completed by internal teams, including customer labs and early adoption ("customer zero") programs.
• Internal Sign-Off - The release sign-off checklist is completed and updated by all Dev module leads..

?? Think of this phase as your real opportunity to see how the product holds up under real-world conditions.

4?? Sign-off & General Availability ?

After rigorous validation, the release is ready to go live. This final checkpoint ensures that everything aligns with expectations before production deployment.

? Exit Criteria:

• GA build verification checklist completed
• Zero-day checklist completed
• Remaining phases of Customer labs, Customer zero programs completed
• Release sign-off checklist completed and updated by SDET leads
• Final security scans completed, and reports uploaded
• Known limitations signed-off by Product Managers and Customer Support Leads
• Documentation updates including known limitations and viable workarounds completed.
• Deliverables (builds, images, etc.,) uploaded and ready for hand-off to internal teams for rollout (to both cloud and On-prem as applicable).
• Production rollout plan reviewed and approved.
• Customer communication prepared.

?? Congratulations! Your release is ready for prime time!

What’s Next? ??

These gates ensure that every release is better than the last—but what exactly goes into some exit criteria checklists? ?? In upcoming articles, we’ll take a deep dive into the specific checklists relevant to each milestone, breaking them down step by step.

?? "If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it." – Peter Drucker

?? We’d love your thoughts! How does your team approach these milestones? Do you follow a similar structure, or have you customized it for your workflow? Let’s discuss in the comments! ??