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Guide · Release testing
A release testing checklist for SaaS teams
Most QA time before a release goes into glue work, not finding bugs. This checklist is the process I run for every release — with an agent doing the glue and me doing the judgment.
Before testing
- Collect the release scope: every ticket and spec page in it
- Identify risky areas: changed code paths, payments, auth, data handling
- Draft test cases from the tickets; review and approve them
- Create the test cycle and assign cases to testers
During testing
- Run API smoke tests: auth, validation, contract, latency
- Run regression and existing automated suites; flag flaky tests
- Manually test flows that need judgment: UX, edge cases, critical paths
- Record results and evidence against each case
Before sign-off
- Triage failures: real bug, test data, or misunderstanding
- File bugs with steps, expected vs actual, and evidence
- Write the release report: one page for management, details for engineers
- Make the go/no-go call, and own it
Fifteen minutes, and you'll know where your testing stands.
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