# Release Plan Template

## Overview

Template for planning and executing software releases.

---

## Release Plan Document

```markdown
# Release Plan: v[X.Y.Z]

## Release Information

| Field           | Value                       |
| --------------- | --------------------------- |
| Version         | v[X.Y.Z]                    |
| Codename        | [Optional]                  |
| Release Date    | YYYY-MM-DD                  |
| Release Manager | [Name]                      |
| Status          | Planning / Ready / Released |

---

## 1. Release Summary

### Highlights

[Brief summary of major changes in this release]

### Release Type

- [ ] Major (breaking changes)
- [ ] Minor (new features, backwards compatible)
- [ ] Patch (bug fixes only)

---

## 2. Features & Changes

### New Features

| ID       | Feature       | Owner  | Status  |
| -------- | ------------- | ------ | ------- |
| FEAT-001 | [Description] | [Name] | ✅ Done |
| FEAT-002 | [Description] | [Name] | ✅ Done |

### Bug Fixes

| ID      | Description   | Severity | Status   |
| ------- | ------------- | -------- | -------- |
| BUG-001 | [Description] | High     | ✅ Fixed |
| BUG-002 | [Description] | Medium   | ✅ Fixed |

### Breaking Changes

| Change                     | Migration Path   |
| -------------------------- | ---------------- |
| [Describe breaking change] | [How to migrate] |

### Deprecations

| Feature   | Deprecated In | Remove In  |
| --------- | ------------- | ---------- |
| [Feature] | v[X.Y.Z]      | v[X+1.0.0] |

---

## 3. Quality Checklist

### Testing

- [ ] All unit tests passing
- [ ] Integration tests passing
- [ ] E2E tests passing
- [ ] Performance tests passing
- [ ] Security scan completed

### Documentation

- [ ] README updated
- [ ] API docs updated
- [ ] CHANGELOG updated
- [ ] Migration guide (if breaking)

### Review

- [ ] Code review completed
- [ ] Security review completed
- [ ] Product owner sign-off

---

## 4. Deployment Plan

### Pre-Release Tasks

| Task                  | Owner  | Due Date | Status |
| --------------------- | ------ | -------- | ------ |
| Freeze feature branch | [Name] | MM/DD    | ⬜     |
| Create release branch | [Name] | MM/DD    | ⬜     |
| Final QA testing      | [Name] | MM/DD    | ⬜     |

### Deployment Steps

1. [ ] Create Git tag
2. [ ] Build release artifacts
3. [ ] Deploy to staging
4. [ ] Smoke test staging
5. [ ] Deploy to production
6. [ ] Smoke test production
7. [ ] Announce release

### Rollback Plan

**Trigger conditions**:

- Error rate > 1%
- P1 bug discovered
- Performance degradation > 20%

**Rollback steps**:

1. Revert to previous version
2. Notify stakeholders
3. Create incident ticket

---

## 5. Communication

### Internal

| Audience    | Channel         | When           |
| ----------- | --------------- | -------------- |
| Engineering | Slack #releases | Day of release |
| Support     | Email           | Day of release |
| All Hands   | Meeting         | Next all-hands |

### External

| Audience | Channel       | When           |
| -------- | ------------- | -------------- |
| Users    | Release Notes | Day of release |
| Blog     | Blog Post     | Day of release |
| Social   | Twitter       | Day of release |

---

## 6. Post-Release

### Monitoring

- [ ] Error rates monitored for 24h
- [ ] Performance metrics tracked
- [ ] User feedback collected

### Follow-up

- [ ] Retro scheduled
- [ ] Metrics reviewed
- [ ] Lessons documented

---

## Appendix

### A. Version History

| Version    | Date  | Notes            |
| ---------- | ----- | ---------------- |
| v[X.Y.Z]   | MM/DD | Current release  |
| v[X.Y.Z-1] | MM/DD | Previous release |

### B. Related Links

- [Release Branch]
- [Test Reports]
- [CHANGELOG]
```

---

## Release Checklist

### 1 Week Before

- [ ] Feature freeze
- [ ] Create release branch
- [ ] Update version number
- [ ] Begin final testing

### 1 Day Before

- [ ] All tests passing
- [ ] Documentation complete
- [ ] CHANGELOG finalized
- [ ] Stakeholder sign-off

### Release Day

- [ ] Create Git tag
- [ ] Build and publish
- [ ] Deploy to production
- [ ] Announce release

### 1 Day After

- [ ] Monitor metrics
- [ ] Address urgent issues
- [ ] Collect feedback

---

## CHANGELOG Template

```markdown
# Changelog

All notable changes to this project will be documented in this file.

The format is based on [Keep a Changelog](https://keepachangelog.com/en/1.0.0/),
and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/).

## [Unreleased]

### Added

- New features

### Changed

- Changes in existing functionality

### Deprecated

- Features to be removed in future

### Removed

- Removed features

### Fixed

- Bug fixes

### Security

- Security improvements

## [X.Y.Z] - YYYY-MM-DD

### Added

- Feature A (#123)
- Feature B (#124)

### Fixed

- Bug C (#125)
```