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Engineering Stage

ES-110 — Release Readiness

Determine whether the verified system baseline is ready for release, limited pilot, deferral, or rejection based on evidence, risk, defects, governance concerns, and operational expectations.

Verification and Release Preparation Release Evidence Next: ES-111

ES-110 Evidence

Purpose

This page defines the evidence expected from ES-110.

Release readiness evidence demonstrates whether a baseline should be released, piloted, deferred, or rejected based on engineering evidence and remaining risk.

Required evidence

Artifact Evidence Purpose
release_candidate_summary.md Identifies the release candidate and release question.
release_evidence_index.md Indexes supporting engineering evidence.
defect_and_risk_assessment.md Assesses open defects and risks.
guardrail_release_review.md Reviews guardrail status for release.
ai_release_review.md Reviews AI release status and controls.
release_scope.md Defines release boundary and exclusions.
release_decision_record.md Records release decision and rationale.
release_conditions.md Defines conditions, limits, and follow-up.
release_readiness_review.md Records reviewer findings.
release_readiness_summary.md Summarizes readiness for ES-111.

Evidence quality expectations

Release evidence should be traceable to testing and verification, explicit about release scope, explicit about open defects, explicit about risk acceptance, explicit about guardrails, explicit about AI status, clear about decision authority, honest about operational limitations, and useful to ES-111.

Release decision quality test

A release decision is strong enough when a reviewer can answer:

  • What baseline is under review?
  • What type of release is being considered?
  • What evidence supports the decision?
  • What defects remain?
  • What risks remain?
  • What guardrails are verified?
  • What AI capabilities are active or disabled?
  • What release conditions apply?
  • Who accepts responsibility?
  • Can operational readiness begin?

Evidence index quality test

The release evidence index is strong enough when a reviewer can find the evidence needed to evaluate the decision without searching the repository manually.

The index should connect release claims to specific artifacts.

Risk acceptance evidence

Accepted risk must be explicit. It should identify the risk, rationale, impact, owner, release scope affected, monitoring expectation, and follow-up action.

Do not treat silence as risk acceptance.

AI-use evidence

If AI assists release readiness analysis, record how it was used and how the conclusions were reviewed.

AI may summarize or critique evidence. It does not become the release authority.

Common Pitfall

Do not release because the team is tired of working on the system. Release should be evidence-driven, not fatigue-driven.

Engineering Insight

Release evidence is the bridge between engineering confidence and operational responsibility.

Continue to Outputs

Review the required ES-110 outputs and downstream use.

Continue to Outputs →