What to change
Agree a concrete stop condition and an authorised decision-maker before the next deployment. The team should know which failures prevent release, which can be accepted with an explicit reason and how to pause further changes. Use a harmless rehearsal failure to test that authority in practice. The purpose is to make a real decision possible when evidence changes, not to create a checklist whose failures everyone assumes someone else will handle.
A worked example
Illustrative example
Illustrative test: A fictional missing core route causes the release to pause pending an explicit decision. In a safe rehearsal, a deliberately missing core contact route causes a critical check to fail. The nominated release owner pauses publication, asks for the defined correction evidence and then authorises resumption. Your team sees that the stop condition works in practice. The exercise exposes whether anyone lacks permission or assumes another supplier is responsible, before that uncertainty arises during a real release affecting visitors.
What this means for your practice
A failed check is useful only if an authorised person can act on it. Before the next publication, agree which essential failures stop the release, who makes that decision and what evidence allows work to resume. Keep the list focused on critical public journeys rather than treating every minor observation as equally urgent. Ask the supplier to rehearse a harmless failure in a test environment, such as a deliberately missing core route. The practice should see the pause and decision process work in reality. An alert that everyone assumes belongs to someone else can allow a known problem to reach visitors despite an apparently thorough checklist.
How to check the result
The stop action, decision owner and resumption evidence are demonstrable.
A mistake to avoid
An alert without authority to act may not prevent a faulty release.
Turn reading into a next step
Your action checklist
Work through these checks with your team or supplier. Tick the ones you have resolved and leave unknowns open.
Record what you know, what is still missing and the answer you need from your team or supplier.
Use project decisions only, without personal, patient or confidential details. Entries stay in this page and are not submitted to Kay & Co. Copy or download before leaving; this page does not save your notes.
Further reading
These sources provide background for the topic. The practice examples and checklist are illustrative planning suggestions from Kay & Co.
Related guides
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