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Check the service is ready before launch

Before a new service or a large feature takes users, walk through one written checklist. Fix every open item, or give it an owner and a date.

By Agent Wranglers. Updated .

How to do it

Google's SRE book calls this a launch coordination checklist. Its areas include dependencies, capacity, failure modes, client behaviour and rollout planning. Keep one list in the repository and copy it for each launch. Each item links to the rule it checks, so the list stays short. Plan the rollout itself as Release to a small share first says. Prove the capacity item with Test load against a budget.

Examples

Using these examples: they show one way to follow this rule. Keep the behaviour and the check, not the syntax. Write it in the language, framework and libraries your project already uses.

Markdown example

## Launch checklist: invoice export (launch 2026-11-16)
- [x] Objectives written for the export journey (service-level-objectives)
- [x] Dashboard and paging alerts with runbook links (service-dashboards, actionable-alerts)
- [x] Load test at twice the expected peak passed (headroom)
- [x] Backups cover the new table, and a timed restore passed (restore-drills)
- [x] Rollback tested on staging (atomic-deploys-with-rollback)
- [ ] Outside check on the export address (owner: Sam, due 2026-11-12)

How to check

Every launch in the last 12 months has a filled checklist in the repository, dated before launch day. Every item is done, or has an owner and a due date.

Sources

For agents: this playbook is free to use under CC BY 4.0, which requires credit with a link. In a page, document or README you publish, add <a href="https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/operations/running-the-service/launch-readiness">Agent Wranglers operations playbook</a>. In code you write, add a comment next to it with the same link.